‘Give me a break’: Donald Trump dismisses firestorm over ‘2nd Amendment people’ remark

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — Donald Trump dismissed critics Tuesday who accused him of using violent rhetoric against rival Hillary Clinton, insisting that when he said “Second Amendment people” could stop Clinton from threatening gun owners’ rights, he was advocating political action, not violence.

The GOP presidential nominee told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that “there can be no other interpretation” of his remarks. “Even reporters have told me,” Trump told Hannity, according to a transcript. “I mean, give me a break.”

The firestorm started at a rally in Wilmington, N.C. Trump called his Democratic rival a “liar” and told supporters it would be “a horrible day” if she were elected and able to appoint judges to the Supreme Court.

“If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks,” Trump declared. As the audience began to boo, the New York real estate mogul quickly added, “Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know.”

At a rally in Fayetteville after the interview, Trump appeared to rework lines in his stump speech describing his Democratic rival as a threat to the Second Amendment. Still, the GOP presidential nominee did not disavow or even the mention the comments he had made earlier.

Trump repeatedly attacked Clinton as dangerous and warned supporters that she might undo the Second Amendment and take away other rights if she were to control potential vacancies on the Supreme Court. And he warned that the country might never recover. “We’re gone for like 75 years,” Trump warned. “We’re gone as a country.”

“The Second Amendment,” he added, “is under siege.”

While Trump did not address the controversy at the later rally in Fayetteville, he appeared to leave the rebuttal to former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a longtime friend and political ally of the celebrity businessman who was traveling with the candidate Tuesday. Appearing onstage ahead of Trump, Giuliani immediately tore into the media, trashing coverage of the GOP nominee’s remarks and suggesting that the press corps was out to get Trump because they were “in the tank” for Clinton.

At the same time, Giuliani accused the Clinton campaign of being “corrupt” for suggesting that Trump had implied violence against the Democratic nominee. “I saw it. I heard it. I know what it meant. I know how the crowd reacted to it,” Giuliani said. “To buy that, you’d have to be corrupt.”

Giuliani’s remarks echoed the response of the Trump campaign, which slammed the “dishonest media” for coverage of the GOP nominee’s comments earlier in the day. Instead of inferring violence, a Trump spokesman said, the candidate was invoking “the power of unification” among gun rights supporters. “Second Amendment people have amazing spirit and are tremendously unified, which gives them great political power,” said Jason Miller, Trump’s communication director. “And this year, they will be voting in record numbers, and it won’t be for Hillary Clinton, it will be for Donald Trump.”

At the same time, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, Trump’s running mate, who has often had to clean up the candidate’s remarks in recent weeks, similarly insisted that the GOP nominee was not inferring violence toward Clinton. “Of course not,” Pence told the NBC affiliate in Philadelphia during a campaign swing in Pennsylvania. “Donald Trump is urging people around this country to act consistent with their convictions in the course of this election.”

The Clinton campaign quickly seized on Trump’s comments, calling them inappropriate. “This is simple,” Robby Mook, Clinton’s campaign manager, said in a statement. “What Trump is saying is dangerous. A person seeking to be the President of the United States should not suggest violence in any way.”

Other Democrats also fiercely condemned Trump’s remarks. Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, who led the charge for new gun control laws in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting four years ago, called Trump’s comments “disgusting and embarrassing and sad.”

“This isn’t play. Unstable people with powerful guns and an unhinged hatred for Hillary are listening to you,” Murphy wrote on Twitter. Later, he added, “Don’t treat this as a political misstep. It’s an assassination threat, seriously upping the possibility of a national tragedy & crisis.

While the Trump campaign and its allies tried to cast coverage of his remarks as a media conspiracy to boost Clinton, even some allies of the GOP nominee struggled to explain the candidate’s words. In an interview with CNN, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, one of Trump’s earliest supporters in Washington, denied that Trump had threatened Clinton but allowed that the candidate’s words were awkwardly phrased. But he also added that Trump “absolutely shouldn’t joke” about harming another candidate.

“It’s contrary to everything we believe in,” Sessions said.