Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is being accused of inciting violence against his rival Hillary Clinton following remarks he made Tuesday during a rally in North Carolina. At the rally, Trump said, “Hillary wants to abolish — essentially, abolish — the Second Amendment. By the way, and if she gets to pick — if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is. I don’t know.” The comments were widely seen as a call to assassinate Hillary Clinton. The comments sparked widespread outrage from lawmakers, a former CIA chief and the New York Daily News, who wrote: “This isn’t a joke any more. When Trump hinted gun-rights supporters shoot Hillary, he went from offensive to reckless. He must end his campaign.”
TRANSCRIPT
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is being accused of inciting violence against his rival, Hillary Clinton, following remarks he made Tuesday during a rally in North Carolina.
DONALD TRUMP: Hillary wants to abolish — essentially, abolish — the Second Amendment. By the way, and if she gets to pick — 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…
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Trump’s remarks were met with outrage. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut tweeted, quote, “Don’t treat this as a political misstep. It’s an assassination threat, seriously upping the possibility of a national tragedy & crisis.” And former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who survived an assassination attempt in 2011, wrote that Trump’s rhetoric, quote, “may provide inspiration or permission for those bent on bloodshed.”
AMY GOODMAN: Chemi Shalev, the U.S. editor of Israeli Haaretz, tweeted, quote, “People who remember the incitement that led to Rabin’s assassination will find Trump’s rhetoric hauntingly familiar.” Shalev was referencing the 1995 assassination of the Israeli prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, by a right-wing Jewish extremist.
The New York Daily News called for Trump to end his campaign. The paper’s cover shows a photo of Trump next to the words “This isn’t a joke any more. When Trump hinted gun-rights supporters shoot Hillary, he went from offensive to reckless. He must end his campaign. If he doesn’t, the GOP needs to abandon him,” the paper wrote.
Speaking on CNN, former CIA chief General Michael Hayden condemned Trump’s remarks.
MICHAEL HAYDEN: Well, let me say, if someone else had said that outside the hall, he’d be in the back of a police wagon now with the Secret Service questioning him.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: A Trump spokesperson said Trump was not inciting violence. Jason Miller said “It’s called the power of unification — 2nd Amendment people have amazing spirit and are tremendously unified, which gives them great political power. And this year, they will be voting in record numbers, and it won’t be for Hillary Clinton, it will be for Donald Trump.”
Trump’s remarks come one month after one of his advisers, New Hampshire State Representative Al Baldasaro, called for Hillary Clinton to be executed. Baldasaro made the comments during a radio interview in July.
REP. AL BALDASARO: This whole thing disgusts me. Hillary Clinton should be put on a firing line and shot for treason.
Angry, shocked, overwhelmed? Take action: Support independent media.
We’ve borne witness to a chaotic first few months in Trump’s presidency.
Over the last months, each executive order has delivered shock and bewilderment — a core part of a strategy to make the right-wing turn feel inevitable and overwhelming. But, as organizer Sandra Avalos implored us to remember in Truthout last November, “Together, we are more powerful than Trump.”
Indeed, the Trump administration is pushing through executive orders, but — as we’ve reported at Truthout — many are in legal limbo and face court challenges from unions and civil rights groups. Efforts to quash anti-racist teaching and DEI programs are stalled by education faculty, staff, and students refusing to comply. And communities across the country are coming together to raise the alarm on ICE raids, inform neighbors of their civil rights, and protect each other in moving shows of solidarity.
It will be a long fight ahead. And as nonprofit movement media, Truthout plans to be there documenting and uplifting resistance.
As we undertake this life-sustaining work, we appeal for your support. Please, if you find value in what we do, join our community of sustainers by making a monthly or one-time gift.