Trump in Trouble over 'Second Amendment' Remark

Trump in Trouble over 'Second Amendment' Remark

The campaign says he was referencing gun-rights voter mobilization, but the remark was widely interpreted as a joke about using guns against his Democratic rival.

By Louis Nelson | 08/09/16 03:44 PM EDT | Updated 08/09/16 06:02 PM EDT

Donald Trump on Tuesday said "the Second Amendment people" may be the only way to stop Hillary Clinton from getting to appoint federal judges if she wins the presidential election in November.

“Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish, the Second Amendment,” he said as an aside while smiling. “By the way, and if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know. But I’ll tell you what, that will be a horrible day.”

The reference to the Second Amendment, the right to keep and bear arms, could be interpreted as a joke about using violence to stop Clinton or her judicial picks.

Trump was speaking at a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, where he repeated his regular claim that Clinton intends to “abolish” the Second Amendment, presumably by appointing liberal justices to the Supreme Court. But Trump punctuated that line with an aside, suggesting that Second Amendment supporters might be in a position to stop her even if she’s elected.

The Trump campaign rejected the notion that Trump was inciting violence against Clinton or anyone else with his aside at the Wilmington rally. Instead, the campaign said the Manhattan billionaire was simply appealing to the collective political muscle Second Amendment supporters possess.

“It’s called the power of unification – 2nd Amendment people have amazing spirit and are tremendously unified, which gives them great political power," Trump's senior communications adviser Jason Miller said in a statement emailed to POLITICO. "And this year, they will be voting in record numbers, and it won’t be for Hillary Clinton, it will be for Donald Trump.”

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, Trump's running mate, said Trump was "of course not" advocating violence with his remarks. Pence was on stage at a town hall-style event in Lancaster PA when Trump made the remarks.

“Hillary Clinton has made it very clear that she wants to see changes in the right of law abiding citizens to keep and bear arms, and Donald Trump is clearly saying that people cherish that right. People who believe that firearms in the hands of law abiding citizens make our communities more safe not less safe should be involved in the political process and let their voice be heard,” Pence said in an interview with Philadelphia's NBC10.

Clinton did not take any questions after her event in Miami on Tuesday, but reached for comment, Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook condemned the comments. "This is simple—what Trump is saying is dangerous. A person seeking to be the President of the United States should not suggest violence in any way," he said in a statement.

Following Trump's remark, the main super PAC supporting her, Priorities USA Action, immediately circulated the clip with the subject line, "Donald Trump Just Suggested That Someone Shoot Hillary Clinton."

Congressional Democrats piled on. Sen. Elizabeth Warren tweeted that Trump "makes death threats because he's a pathetic coward who can’t handle the fact that he’s losing to a girl."

"I don't know if this is statement is intended to incite violence, but Donald Trump is a reckless individual who will say or do anything," said Rep. G.K. Butterfield, a North Carolina Democrat and chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. "That’s inciteful to use language about the Second Amendment … it should be denounced,"

Rep. Eric Swallwell, a California Democrat, called on Twitter for the Secret Service to investigate. “Donald Trump suggested someone kill Sec. Clinton. We must take people at their word. @SecretService must investigate #TrumpThreat,” he wrote.

(Martin Mulholland, a spokesman for the Secret Service, did not directly address the question of whether the agency – which provides protection to both Trump and Clinton – plans to investigate the remark, but he wrote in an email to POLITICO, “The Secret Service is aware of the comment.”)

Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, launched a series of tweets criticizing the comments: "Don't treat this as a political misstep. It's an assassination threat, seriously upping the possibility of a national tragedy & crisis," he wrote. "This isn't play. Unstable people with powerful guns and an unhinged hatred for Hillary are listening to you, @realDonaldTrump."

The National Rifle Association defended the first part of Trump's comment, in which Trump said that Clinton would appoint anti-Second Amendment judges to the Supreme Court. ".@RealDonaldTrump is right. If @HillaryClinton gets to pick her anti-#2A #SCOTUS judges, there’s nothing we can do. #NeverHillary," the organization tweeted from its official Twitter account.

The group subsequently encouraged members to vote for pro-gun rights candidates. "But there IS something we will do on #ElectionDay: Show up and vote for the #2A! #DefendtheSecond #NeverHillary," the group wrote on its Twitter account.

Bob Owens, the editor of the NRA-linked BearingArms.com, initially tweeted disapproval of Trump's comments. "That was a threat of violence. As a REAL supporter of the #2A it's appalling to me,” Owens tweeted. Bearing Arms had sponsored the May meeting of the NRA’s lobbying arm where the group formally endorsed Trump.

Within two hours of posting that tweet, however, Owens deleted it and put up a link to a new blog post on Bearing Arms, contending that Trump’s comments had been taken out of context.

"While he left himself open to be exploited by a serially dishonest media that has clearly chosen to support Hillary in this election, I don’t see anything to suggest that he was threatening violence against Mrs. Clinton,” he wrote.

Matthew Nussbaum, Sarah Wheaton, Nolan McCaskill, Gabriel Debenedetti and Burgess Everett contributed to this report.

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WHAT IS HAPPENING M8S?

Was about to point this out

at this point it seems like Trump is actually trying his best to throw the election to Shillary.

it's clearly disguised spam.

Are you retarded? There is nothing wrong with what he said.

yes goyim, he's done for, you should support Hillary she is the only one who can win

I'm fucking sick of D&C faggots like you

Landslide is still imminent.

Especially when Trump literally did nothing wrong.

he made a pretty obvious insinuation at assassination that he knew would get blown up all over the media and social media and normalfags would gobble up

yes goyim, he's done for, you should support Hillary she is the only one who can win
yup, seems like that's what he's aiming for

WE ARE BEING RAIDED AND (((THEY))) ARE CHANGING TACTICS, THIS IS A SPAM THREAD

So this is something they knew would happen, and is of a more philosophical tenor than previous "gaffes." How do they plan to spin this? Trump's twitter has a lame quote about getting out the vote.

They do this every morning around this time. Just don't worry that much, the mods will clean up the dumb shit in a bit.

No…

and as usual the mods will fucking anchor them instead of deleting them, which then locks them in the catalog at that position to only move down when other threads are created/bumped.

Dead set fucking retarded

they will probably bumplock the lenin and anime threads but leave this shit up.

mods are comprimised.
imkampfy is the maddowposter
moonman is a furfag/ponycuck who dismisses all reports for the maddowspam

so, the lügenpresse is basically telling us that 2nd amendment people are terrorists, right?

no? Then please correct my thinking

I'd rather correct your face with a 2x4.

That anime thread is questionable, though. Perhaps I am in the minority, but I fucking despise avatarfags, weebs and faggot animuposters from /a/.

Poe's law could apply to that thread

I know and they also bumplock some good art/music threads to annoy people.


I hate weebs tbh but the spammers are using it to divide the Holla Forums community.

How do you not get that Maddow is the only good avatar fag? It's a literal strawman to practice on.

ok, awesome. You've convinced me! Thanks user, I am now confident that I was mistaken and that you are not a complete retard with nothing of value to say.

Weebs come and go and never contribute, decultured little betas at best.

Most of them aren't Holla Forums regulars anyway.

Gotta agree and "MUH CULTURE" is becoming a very flimsy defense for blatant degeneracy.

ok then how come the maddow threads only start when imkampfy appears in the board logs?

It was a joke about another revolutionary war. This time, instead of tea, we dump shitskins from boats. Haha.

Anime threads are always a hard one due to them being an ingrained part if imageboards for an eternity.
They are most definitely being used to D&C at the moment though and with the influx of newblood its an easy fracture point


fuck off imkampfy, jump head first off a tall building faggot


Board culture has curated itself over many many years, it server the purpose of making newfags easily identifiable and also as a ward at the door to scare away the snowflakes.

That you fail to see the useful idiots being utilised as intended gives off a really bad reddit stink.

Because it is imkampfy. He's just doing it for fun because he's a fucking loser like all of us. Duh.

sage
lying media and correct the record shills.

t. learningAIDs

oh shut the fuck up

Why does his face look like that?

It gets bigger when I pull on it.

At this point it seems like you're trying to catch a dick in your mouth

Refine your shilling style, please. We only accept shills who get over $0,05 per post.

(((PURE COINCIDENCE)))

Treason

And with that I'm out. I just can't support violent insurrection against political appointments.

Shit. Now who do I vote for? McGiver?

+.10c for you at least

Bump