GOP squirms

GOP squirms amid latest Trump firestorm

The Republican nominee’s Second Amendment comment has allies scrambling to explain what he meant.

By Louis Nelson

Republican lawmakers and even Donald Trump allies were squirming Wednesday amid the fallout from the Manhattan billionaire’s suggestion that “the Second Amendment people” might be the only group capable of stopping Hillary Clinton from appointing liberal judges if she is elected president.

GOP legislators and Trump campaign staffers offered mostly explanations instead of defenses when asked about the Republican nominee’s comments, made at a Wednesday rally in Wilmington, North Carolina. Nearly unanimously, Republicans said the remarks were being blown out of proportion, but few could offer a justification for the aside beyond acknowledging it was an ill-conceived line.

Trump campaign co-chair Sam Clovis characterized the comment and ensuing controversy as a learning experience for the campaign in an interview on CNN’s “New Day.” He stopped short of calling Trump’s Second Amendment remark a mistake, but said the campaign has “plenty of time” to learn from it before the race picks up steam after Labor Day.

Clovis said he understood Trump’s comment to be a reference to the collective political muscle of America’s gun enthusiasts and not as an incitation to violence, an explanation similar to the one offered by a campaign spokesman shortly after coverage of the remarks began to emerge.

“A lot of times when Mr. Trump speaks, it is not as artful as a lot of people might think,” Clovis said. “I didn't have any issue with it at all. But you know, of course, I've been around Mr. Trump a long time. I've been with the campaign for a year. So I didn't have any issue with it at all. I could understand how people leap to this, and certainly, the media.”

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign and daughter of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, was especially critical of the media’s portrayal of the candidate’s comments. As a member of a panel offering analysis on CNN Wednesday morning, Huckabee Sanders was careful to say, “We’re not defending Donald Trump’s comments,” but are combating what she called the “liberal media agenda.”

“All candidates have to be careful about what we say about guns, given the culture that we live in. But at the same time, when it comes to inciting violence, that wasn't his point at all,” she said. “This is clearly a moment where the media is trying to take his words and make them into something they're not. There are moments where he probably wished he hadn't phrased something the way he did. But yesterday, it certainly wasn't the case.”

Like Clovis, Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) chalked up Trump’s comments to little more than a poorly thought out comment. The New York congressman, who has said he supports Trump but has been far from enthusiastic in backing his party’s candidate, told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that the real estate mogul should “absolutely” take back the comment but panned as ridiculous the notion that Trump might actually be encouraging violence against Clinton. Instead, King said Trump was making “one of those over-the-shoulder comments” and added that “I don’t think he even full appreciated what he was saying.”

“Do you really think he was urging people to kill Hillary Clinton? Do you really believe that? No. I think it was just a dumb remark. It was as simple as that,” King said. “I think you're reading far too much into it. Are you saying he was negligent in saying it? Absolutely. He should take it back, make it clear he’s taking it back.”

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who only recently announced that she will not support Trump in November, also said she did not interpret Trump’s Tuesday comment as a call for violence against Clinton. But she also said Trump “has himself to blame for the fact that people leap to that conclusion,” because of the often-bombastic rhetoric he so often relies on on the campaign trail.

“Donald Trump has made so many disparaging and reckless comments that it is not surprising that this one has been misinterpreted,” Collins said on CNN’s “New Day,” noting that it was rare for her to be in the position of defending a candidate she has already denounced.

“Donald Trump has such a history of making remarks that denigrate people, that mock the vulnerable, that are so inappropriate for a presidential candidate,” she continued. “Even though I don't think it was intended in any way to be inciting violence, Donald Trump has himself to blame for the fact that people leap to that conclusion. It is because he has had this constant stream of attacks on people that people assume the worst.”

Only former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who introduced Trump at his two North Carolina rallies Tuesday, could muster a full-throated defense of the Republican nominee. He blamed the swirling controversy around Trump’s comments on the “Clinton spin machine” and dismissed it as “nonsense.” Giuliani said it took a half hour for news of the debate over what exactly Trump meant to reach the candidate’s ears, at which point the reality TV star uttered a word beginning with the letter B that Giuliani was unwilling to repeat on television.

Giuliani said he made nothing of the comment when he heard it live inside the University of North Carolina-Wilmington’s Trask Coliseum. He said it was hypocritical of the media to infer meaning from Trump’s remarks when he is so frequently criticized for his direct style of speaking and his refusal to tip-toe around delicate subjects.

“If Donald Trump wanted to say that, believe me, nobody in the world would stop him from saying that. Of course, he isn't going to say it. He doesn't mean it. He isn't that kind of man,” Giuliani said. ‘What this is — part of their process of trying to demonize him. It's the only way they can demonize him because they have a criminal on the top of their ticket.”

Clinton, meanwhile, tried to capitalize on the latest furor. Her campaign sent out a fundraising pitch Wednesday morning, asking supporters to “have her back.”

“Donald Trump does not deserve to win. We cannot let him win. So I’m asking you right now — will you chip in to get your free sticker and make 100 percent sure that we stop him?” the email read.