{"id":10769,"date":"2016-08-11T06:39:58","date_gmt":"2016-08-11T06:39:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=10769"},"modified":"2016-08-11T06:39:58","modified_gmt":"2016-08-11T06:39:58","slug":"donald-trump-pleads-innocence-in-second-amendment-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/politics\/donald-trump-pleads-innocence-in-second-amendment-scandal.html","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump pleads innocence in Second Amendment scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump pleads innocence in Second Amendment scandal<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Donald Trump pleads innocence in Second Amendment scandal<\/strong>:Donald Trump on Wednesday pleaded innocence as the latest firestorm around his campaign refused to die down, saying he wasn\u2019t trying to incite violence against Hillary Clinton when he said \u201cSecond Amendment people<\/strong>\u201d are the only ones who can stop her from appointing liberal justices to the Supreme Court.<\/span><\/p>\n

Clinton wasn\u2019t buying it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWords matter, my friends, and if you are running to be president or if you are president of the United States, words can have tremendous consequences,\u201d she said at a rally in Iowa on Wednesday afternoon. \u201cYesterday, we witnessed the latest in a long line of casual comments from Donald Trump that crossed the line.\u201d<\/span>
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Trump on Tuesday touched off another scandal when he suggested gun rights advocates could be the last hope in an effort to stop Clinton from abolishing the Second Amendment through Supreme Court picks. The backlash was swift, with Democrats calling the statement beyond the pale, the Secret Service reporting that it was aware of the remark, and Republicans trying to dismiss the comment as a bad joke.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the furor was still raging. And Trump was still trying to clean up the mess.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we’re talking about is political power, there\u2019s tremendous political power to save the Second Amendment, tremendous,\u201d he said on Fox News, an in interview clip posted on Wednesday afternoon. \u201cYou look at the power they have in terms of votes and that\u2019s what I was referring to, obviously that\u2019s what I was referring to and everybody knows it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump also tried to change the conversation, using the bulk of an afternoon campaign event in Virginia to hammer Clinton for the email scandal that riles up his supporters, who have adopted \u201cLock her up!\u201d as a rallying cry.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Wednesday, he seized on the latest email dump that showed Bill Clinton aide Doug Band, who also oversaw Clinton Foundation employees<\/strong>, interacting with top Hillary Clinton aides<\/strong> to request a meeting between a Clinton Foundation megadonor and a U.S. ambassador.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump accused Clinton of engaging in \u201cillegal\u201d favor-trading but predicted the media \u2014 whom he accused on Tuesday of twisting his Second Amendment comment<\/strong> \u2014 would give Clinton a pass.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s running for president. But it came out that her people pay for play,\u201d Trump said, referring to Clinton\u2019s aides. \u201cVery big stories today. The problem is it\u2019ll be big stories for about two minutes and then they\u2019re gonna drop it because the media is so totally dishonest. So totally dishonest.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He also hit back at a CNN report that included a Secret Service official<\/strong> saying the agency had \u201cmore than one conversation\u201d with Trump about his Second Amendment comment.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNo such meeting or conversation ever happened \u2014 a made up story by \u2018low ratings\u2019 @CNN,\u201d Trump tweeted Wednesday afternoon.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even as Trump tried to right his careening campaign, his allies and reluctant supporters struggled to stem the bleeding from the tycoon\u2019s latest self-inflicted wound.<\/span><\/p>\n

GOP legislators and Trump campaign staffers offered mostly explanations rather than defenses when asked about the Republican nominee\u2019s comments<\/strong>. Nearly unanimously, Republicans said the remarks were being blown out of proportion, but few could offer a justification for the aside beyond it calling it ill-conceived.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump campaign<\/strong> co-chair Sam Clovis characterized the comment and ensuing controversy as a learning experience for the campaign in an interview on CNN\u2019s \u201cNew Day.\u201d He stopped short of calling Trump\u2019s Second Amendment line a mistake, but said the campaign has \u201cplenty of time\u201d to learn from it before the race picks up steam after Labor Day.<\/span><\/p>\n

Clovis said he understood Trump\u2019s comment to be a reference to the collective political muscle of America\u2019s gun enthusiasts and not an incitement to violence, an explanation similar to the one offered by a campaign spokesman shortly after coverage of the remarks began to emerge.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of times when Mr. Trump speaks, it is not as artful as a lot of people might think,\u201d Clovis said. \u201cI didn’t have any issue with it at all. But you know, of course, I’ve been around Mr. Trump a long time. I’ve been with the campaign for a year. So I didn\u2019t have any issue with it at all. I could understand how people leap to this, and certainly, the media.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Sarah Huckabee Sanders<\/strong>, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign and the daughter of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, was especially critical of the media\u2019s portrayal of her candidate\u2019s comments. As a member of a panel offering analysis on CNN on Wednesday morning, Huckabee Sanders was careful to say \u201cwe\u2019re not defending Donald Trump\u2019s comments\u201d but instead combating what she called the \u201cliberal media agenda.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAll candidates have to be careful about what we say about guns, given the culture that we live in. But at the same time, when it comes to inciting violence, that wasn\u2019t his point at all,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is clearly a moment where the media is trying to take his words and make them into something they\u2019re not. There are moments where he probably wished he hadn\u2019t phrased something the way he did. But yesterday, it certainly wasn\u2019t the case.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Like Clovis, Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) chalked up Trump\u2019s comments to little more than a poorly thought-out comment. The New York congressman<\/strong>, who has said he supports Trump but has been far from enthusiastic in backing his party\u2019s candidate, told MSNBC\u2019s \u201cMorning Joe\u201d that the real estate mogul should \u201cabsolutely\u201d take back the comment but panned as ridiculous the notion that Trump might actually be encouraging violence against Clinton. Instead, King said Trump was making \u201cone of those over-the-shoulder comments\u201d and added that \u201cI don\u2019t think he even fully appreciated what he was saying.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDo you really think he was urging people to kill Hillary Clinton? Do you really believe that? No. I think it was just a dumb remark. It was as simple as that,\u201d King said. \u201cI think you\u2019re reading far too much into it. Are you saying he was negligent in saying it? Absolutely. He should take it back, make it clear he\u2019s taking it back.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine)<\/strong>, who only recently announced that she will not support Trump in November, also said she did not interpret Trump\u2019s Tuesday comment as a call for violence against Clinton. But she also said Trump \u201chas himself to blame for the fact that people leap to that conclusion,\u201d because of the bombastic rhetoric he so often relies on on the campaign trail.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDonald Trump has made so many disparaging and reckless comments that it is not surprising that this one has been misinterpreted,\u201d Collins said on CNN\u2019s \u201cNew Day,\u201d noting that it was rare for her to be in the position of defending a candidate she has already denounced.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDonald Trump has such a history of making remarks that denigrate people, that mock the vulnerable, that are so inappropriate for a presidential candidate,\u201d she continued. \u201cEven though I don’t think it was intended in any way to be inciting violence, Donald Trump has himself to blame for the fact that people leap to that conclusion. It is because he has had this constant stream of attacks on people that people assume the worst.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Only former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani<\/strong>, who introduced Trump at his two North Carolina rallies Tuesday, could muster a full-throated defense of the Republican nominee. He blamed the swirling controversy around Trump\u2019s comments on the \u201cClinton spin machine\u201d and dismissed it as \u201cnonsense.\u201d Giuliani said it took a halfhour for news of the debate over what exactly Trump meant to reach the candidate\u2019s ears, at which point the reality TV star uttered a word beginning with the letter B that Giuliani was unwilling to repeat on television.<\/span><\/p>\n

Giuliani said he made nothing of the comment when he heard it live inside the University of North Carolina-Wilmington\u2019s Trask Coliseum<\/strong>. He said it was hypocritical of the media to infer meaning from Trump\u2019s remarks when he is so frequently criticized for his direct style of speaking and his refusal to tiptoe around delicate subjects.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf Donald Trump wanted to say that, believe me, nobody in the world would stop him from saying that. Of course he isn’t going to say it. He doesn’t mean it. He isn’t that kind of man,\u201d Giuliani said. \u201cWhat this is part of their process of trying to demonize him. It\u2019s the only way they can demonize him, because they have a criminal on the top of their ticket.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Clinton, meanwhile, tried to capitalize on the latest furor. Her campaign sent out a fundraising pitch Wednesday morning, asking supporters to \u201chave her back.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDonald Trump does not deserve to win. We cannot let him win. So I\u2019m asking you right now \u2014 will you chip in to get your free sticker and make 100 percent sure that we stop him?\u201d the email read.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/strong> : http:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2016\/08\/trump-second-amendment-fallout-226862<\/span><\/p>\n

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