Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said the crowd's reaction is proof Donald Trump wasn't really talking about shooting Hillary Clinton when he suggested at a rally Tuesday that "Second Amendment people" might be able to stop her from picking Supreme Court judges. "With a crowd like that, if that's what they thought he'd meant, they'd have gone wild," Giuliani told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America on Wednesday.
Giuliani said Trump was really just explaining how gun rights advocates "have the power to keep her out of office." Besides, he pointed out, if Trump wanted to suggest using violence against Clinton, he wouldn't have danced around saying that. "We know Donald Trump is not particularly indirect," Giuliani said. "If Donald Trump was going to say something like that, he'd say something like that."
Trump has also dismissed the controversy surrounding his remark, which he said was just a "joke" encouraging "unification." "Nobody in that room thought anything other than [that]. This is a political movement. This is a strong powerful movement, the Second Amendment," Trump said Tuesday night.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Watch Giuliani double down on Trump's defense below. Becca Stanek
-
Could Democrats lose the New Jersey governor’s race?Today’s Big Question Democrat Mikie Sherrill stumbles against Republican Jack Ciattarelli
-
‘Porsche’s luxury credentials are now hanging by a thread’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Choose your own wellness adventure in Greater Palm SpringsThe Week Recommends Hit the spa, try a sound bath or take a hike
-
Trump DOJ indicts New York AG Letitia JamesSpeed Read New York Attorney General Letitia James was indicted as Trump’s Justice Department pursues charges against his political opponents
-
Judge blocks Trump’s Guard deployment in ChicagoSpeed Read The president is temporarily blocked from federalizing the Illinois National Guard or deploying any Guard units in the state
-
Trump urges jail for Illinois, Chicago leadersSpeed Read The Texas National Guard begin operations in the Chicago area
-
Bondi stonewalls on Epstein, Comey in Senate face-offSpeed Read Attorney General Pam Bondi denied charges of using the Justice Department in service of Trump’s personal vendettas
-
Court allows Trump’s Texas troops to head to ChicagoSpeed Read Trump is ‘using our service members as pawns in his illegal effort to militarize our nation’s cities,’ said Gov. J.B. Pritzker
-
Judge bars Trump’s National Guard moves in OregonSpeed Read In an emergency hearing, a federal judge blocked President Donald Trump from sending National Guard troops into Portland
-
Museum head ousted after Trump sword gift denialSpeed Read Todd Arrington, who led the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, denied the Trump administration a sword from the collection as a gift for King Charles
-
Trump declares ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartelsspeed read This provides a legal justification for recent lethal military strikes on three alleged drug trafficking boats
