On the defensive once again, US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is blaming faulty interpretations and media bias for an uproar over his comments about the Second Amendment.
He insists he never advocated violence against US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, even as undeterred Democrats pile on.
The latest controversy to strike Trump’s campaign arose, as they often do, out of an offhand quip at a boisterous campaign rally.
Falsely claiming that Clinton wants to revoke the right to gun ownership, Trump said there would be “nothing you can do,” if she is elected, to stop her from stacking the US Supreme Court with anti-gun justices.
Then he added ambiguously: “Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is — I don’t know, but I’ll tell you what: That will be a horrible day.”
Was Trump suggesting gun owners take matters into their own hands if Clinton wins the White House? Or was he merely musing about the indisputably powerful influence of the gun lobby?
Trump’s supporters and opponents construed his comments in entirely different ways.
“Give me a break,” Trump said hours later, insisting he was referring to the power that voters hold.
He told Fox News that “there can be no other interpretation.”
However, Democrats saw — and seized — an opportunity to reinforce the perception that Trump cannot moderate the things that come out of his mouth, much less the decisions he would make as president.
“I really, frankly couldn’t believe he said it,” said US Senator Tim Kaine, the Democratic vice presidential candidate. “Nobody who is seeking a leadership position, especially the presidency, the leadership of the country, should do anything to countenance violence, and that’s what he was saying.”
By Tuesday evening, Clinton’s campaign was fundraising off the firestorm, asking supporters by e-mail to chip in US$1 to “show that we don’t tolerate this kind of politics in America.”
Trump’s team, too, was using the controversy to reinforce a theme it has been pitching to voters: that an underdog Trump is being unfairly treated by the media.
“They will buy any line, any distortion, and spin that the Clintons put out,” said former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, an ardent Trump supporter.
However, US House Speaker Paul Ryan, who was celebrating a primary victory in Wisconsin on Tuesday night, said: “It sounds like just a joke gone bad. I hope they clear this up very quickly. You never joke about something like that.”
The controversy immediately overwhelmed Trump’s intended focus on the campaign trail: the economic plan he unveiled just a day earlier and was promoting during a series of rallies in the most competitive general election states.
It also underscored the concern, voiced by many worried Republicans, that he cannot stay disciplined and avoid inflammatory remarks that imperil not only his White House prospects, but the re-election chances of many Republican lawmakers.
It was not immediately clear whether Trump’s latest stumble would continue to dog him or whether, like many in the past, it would quickly fade away.
In Ohio — a competitive state coveted by both Trump and Clinton, Trump’s comments struck some of those questioned in a focus group of Ohio voters the wrong way.
“Maybe I’m hearing it wrong, but sounds like he’s basically saying take her out,” said Julie B, an office administrator and married mother of two who was identified only by her first name and last initial.
Trump’s perceived violation of political norms — candidates do not typically call for physically hurting opponents — was all the more striking, because the position he was criticizing is not one that Clinton holds.
Contrary to Trump’s remarks, Clinton has made her support for the Second Amendment a key piece of her usual campaign speech, although she supports stricter gun control measures.
“I’m not here to take away your guns,” she said in her Democratic National Convention speech. “I just don’t want you to be shot by someone who shouldn’t have a gun in the first place.”
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