Trump dismisses controversy over his Second Amendment comment
Donald Trump denied advising "Second Amendment people" to take some sort of violent action against Hillary Clinton, telling Fox News' Sean Hannity to "give me a break" on Tuesday night. Trump claimed he was suggesting unity when he warned ambiguously during a rally that "if [Clinton] gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do folks — although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don't know."
"Nobody in that room thought anything other than [that]. This is a political movement. This is a strong powerful movement, the Second Amendment. Hillary wants to take your guns away. She wants to leave you unprotected in your home," Trump told Hannity.
Trump specifically blamed the media for the interpretation of his comments: "Media desperate to distract from Clinton's anti-2A stance. I said pro-2A citizens must organize and get out vote to save our Constitution!" he tweeted on Tuesday.
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But the media weren't the only ones to hear something sinister in Trump's comments. Clinton's campaign used the comments to fundraise, calling Trump's suggestion "dangerous," and even House Speaker Paul Ryan admitted, "It sounds like just a joke gone bad … You never joke about something like that."
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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