North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr apologized Monday for suggesting over the weekend that gun owners put a “bullseye” on Hillary Clinton.
“The comment I made was inappropriate, and I apologize for it,” the North Carolina Republican, who is in a tight re-election battle, said in a statement to CNN.
While privately addressing a group of supporters at a Mooresville, N.C., gun shop on Saturday, Burr said “nothing made me feel better” than when he saw a magazine about rifles “with a picture of Hillary Clinton on the front of it.”
“I was a little bit shocked at that — it didn’t have a bullseye on it,” Burr said.
The GOP incumbent, running against Democrat Deborah Ross for re-election, defended his remarks as a reference to other conservative candidates winning support from pro-Second Amendment groups. Burr is leading by 1 percentage point, according to the RealClearPolitics poll average.
Burr also promised that if elected again, he would work to keep the vacant Supreme Court seat empty even if Clinton is elected president.
