After drawing fire for allegedly suggesting that “Second Amendment people” could “off” Hillary as a last ditch effort to prevent her from abolishing the Second Amendment (as we detailed here), the man who “always says what he means” took to the Hannity show last night to explain how that’s not what he meant. Trump commented to Sean Hannity as follows:
“This is a political movement. This is a strong powerful movement, the Second Amendment. Wayne and Chris and all the people over there and they tweeted out, basically they agree 100 percent with what I said. And there can be no other interpretation. Even reporters have told me. I mean, give me a break.”
In fact, the NRA did support Trump’s comments by issuing the tweet below:
.@RealDonaldTrump is right. If @HillaryClinton gets to pick her anti-#2A #SCOTUS judges, there’s nothing we can do. #NeverHillary
— NRA (@NRA) August 9, 2016
They then backed up the comment by launching a media campaign against Clinton shortly thereafter.
.@HillaryClinton is a hypocrite who will leave you defenseless. That is a fact. #HypocriteHillary #2A pic.twitter.com/L6xTrBfvfj
— NRA (@NRA) August 9, 2016
They also pointed out similar comments made by Joe Biden in 2008.
Joe Biden, in 2008: If Obama "tries to fool with my Beretta, he's got a problem" #2A #2ndAmendment pic.twitter.com/Pr8WliGAWs
— NRA (@NRA) August 9, 2016
In typical fashion, the Trump campaign attributed the mischaracterization of his comments to the biased media. Per The Hill, Trump aide Jason Miller explained that Trump was just pointing out the “Tremendous” unity of the “Second Amendment people” and how that gives them great “political power”:
“It’s called the power of unification – 2nd Amendment people have amazing spirit and are tremendously unified, which gives them great political power.”
For a man who always says what he means it’s astounding how many times he has take to the media to clarify ambiguous comments. Almost makes you wonder whether Trump is a reckless, “unfit” candidate or a brilliant self-promoter skilled at scoring free air time…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9BUXwe6gCs