Hillary Clinton’s campaign team punched back Friday evening against Donald Trump musing about what might happen if the Democratic nominee’s security detail willingly disarmed itself.
“Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for President, has 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,” Hillary for America Campaign Manager Robby Mook said in a statement.
“This kind of talk should be out of bounds for a presidential candidate,” he said, adding, “But we’ve seen again and again that no amount of failed resets can change who Donald Trump is. He is unfit to be president and it is time Republican leaders stand up to denounce this disturbing behavior in their nominee.”
Trump claimed at a rally Friday evening that a Clinton presidency would lead to the dismantling of the Second Amendment. He also argued that if she’s so pro-gun control, then her security guards should voluntarily disarm themselves.
“I think her bodyguards should drop all weapons. They should disarm immediately,” the GOP nominee said at a campaign stop in Miami, Florida.
“Take their guns away; let’s see what happens to her!” he said.
Trump’s remarks, and the subsequent reaction from politicos and pundits, are reminiscent of when the GOP nominee ambiguously suggested in August that there may be something “Second Amendment people” can do if Clinton wins the White House and appoints pro-gun control judges.
“Hillary essentially wants to abolish the Second Amendment,” Trump said at a rally in North Carolina. “By the way, and if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks.”
“Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is,” he said, adding, “I don’t know.”
Calling for proponents of increased gun control measures to themselves abandon all firearm-based security measures is a trope commonly used by the National Rifle Association, which endorsed Trump earlier this year.
