Giuliani said the crowd would have cheered much louder if Trump was actually talking about shooting Clinton
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
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Could Trump run for a third term?The Explainer Constitutional amendment limits US presidents to two terms, but Trump diehards claim there is a loophole
-
Political cartoons for November 28Cartoons Friday's political cartoons include economic diagnosis, climate distractions, and more
-
What does the fall in net migration mean for the UK?Today’s Big Question With Labour and the Tories trying to ‘claim credit’ for lower figures, the ‘underlying picture is far less clear-cut’
-
Judge halts Trump’s DC Guard deploymentSpeed Read The Trump administration has ‘infringed upon the District’s right to govern itself,’ the judge ruled
-
Trump accuses Democrats of sedition meriting ‘death’Speed Read The president called for Democratic lawmakers to be arrested for urging the military to refuse illegal orders
-
Court strikes down Texas GOP gerrymanderSpeed Read The Texas congressional map ordered by Trump is likely an illegal racial gerrymander, the court ruled
-
Trump defends Saudi prince, shrugs off Khashoggi murderSpeed Read The president rebuked an ABC News reporter for asking Mohammed bin Salman about the death of a Washington Post journalist at the Saudi Consulate in 2018
-
Congress passes bill to force release of Epstein filesSpeed Read The Justice Department will release all files from its Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking investigation
-
Trump says he will sell F-35 jets to Saudi ArabiaSpeed Read The president plans to make several deals with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman this week
-
Judge blasts ‘profound’ errors in Comey caseSpeed Read ‘Government misconduct’ may necessitate dismissing the charges against the former FBI director altogether
-
Ecuador rejects push to allow US military basesSpeed Read Voters rejected a repeal of a constitutional ban on US and other foreign military bases in the country