Donald Trump veered off script during a speech in Miami on Friday and the ad lib was once again interpreted as a threat against his Democrat opponent, Hillary Clinton.
“You know (Clinton’s) very much against the Second Amendment. She wants to destroy your Second Amendment,” he said after making rambling comments equating working people with hedge fund and Wall Street managers wanting “a fraction of the security enjoyed” by both politicians and Clinton.
“I think what we should do is she goes around with armed bodyguards like you have never seen before. I think that her bodyguards should drop all weapons. They should disarm. … I think they should disarm immediately,” Trump said.
“Take their guns away. She doesn’t want guns. Take them. Let’s see what happens to her. Take their guns away. Okay. It will be very dangerous,” he added.
On Friday night, Clinton’s campaign manager, Robby Mook, released a statement to media saying Trump has shown “a pattern of inciting people to violence.”
“Whether this is done to provoke protesters at a rally or casually or even as a joke, it is an unacceptable quality in anyone seeking the job of commander in chief,” Mook said. “This kind of talk should be out of bounds for a presidential candidate.”
In response to questioning from media, Trump’s campaign denied the allegation and said he was being “sarcastic.”
During a week of flubs last month, the Republican nominee made a similar comment in which he said “Second Amendment people” could do something if Clinton as president appointed Supreme Court Justices. He later clarified that he meant the action they could take is voting.
Trump’s message, however, about disarming Clinton’s guards because of her views on gun rights — she advocates sweeping gun control measures — elicits concepts expressed by the National Rifle Association in a January 2013 attack ad against President Obama.
A month after the deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the NRA released an ad calling attention to security protections given to Obama’s daughters while advocating armed guards in schools and jabbing at gun free zones. “Are the presidents’ kids more important than yours?” a narrator asks in the ad.
Coincidentally, former Republican presidential candidate turned Trump supporter, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, bashed the advertisement alongside others. He called the ad “reprehensible” for bringing attention to the president’s children for a political point.
Presidents and their families, presidential candidates, vice presidents and visiting heads of state are granted protection by the U.S. Secret Service. As a former first lady and presidential candidate, Clinton has guards and so does Trump.
Yet, this isn’t the first time Trump has called for disarming Clinton’s guards. During the NRA show in May, when the organization endorsed him, he said: “Heartless hypocrites like the Clintons … let their bodyguards immediately disarm.”
The U.S. presidential election ends Nov. 8, more than seven weeks away.
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