DONALD TRUMP HAS again called for Hillary Clinton’s Secret Service agents to be stripped of their firearms, stating: “Let’s see what happens to her.”
Trump has long incorrectly suggested his Democratic opponent wants to overturn the Second Amendment and take away Americans’ right to own guns. At a rally in Miami yesterday, he again riffed about confiscating the agents’ guns and then went further.
“I think that her bodyguards should drop all weapons. They should disarm, right?,” Trump asked the crowd. “Take their guns away, she doesn’t want guns. Take their [guns] and let’s see what happens to her. Take their guns away. OK, it would be very dangerous.”
Trump’s meaning was not clear and a campaign spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for an elaboration.
However, the Clinton campaign had a quick reaction. Spokesman Robby Mook released a statement last night saying Trump “has a pattern of inciting people to violence”.
“Whether this is done to provoke protesters at a rally or casually or even as a joke, it is an unacceptable quality in anyone seeking the job of Commander in Chief.
“This kind of talk should be out of bounds for a presidential candidate,” Mook wrote.
A spokeswoman for the Secret Service declined to comment.
Suggestion of violence
The seemingly ominous comment evoked a remark Trump made last month that many Democrats condemned as a call for Clinton’s assassination. Speaking at a rally in North Carolina, the Republican nominee erroneously said his opponent wants to abolish the Second Amendment.
By the way, if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know.
Within minutes, the Clinton campaign condemned the remark. Mook said then: “A person seeking to be the president of the United States should not suggest violence in any way.”
Trump later disputed that criticism, saying everyone in his audience knew he was referring to the power of voters and “there can be no other interpretation”.
Trump, who has the endorsement of the National Rifle Association (NRA), eventually took to Twitter to say the Secret Service had not contacted him about the remarks.
The comments in Miami came hours after Trump finally reversed his long-held position that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States. Appearing in Washington, he said Obama was born in the United States but then incorrectly suggested the Clinton campaign had started the conspiracy theory.
Trump ignored questions from reporters about his switch and has yet to explain why he abandoned the “birther” stance that fuelled his political fame and was viewed by critics as an attempt to delegitimise the nation’s first African-American president.
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