The Cable
The Cable goes inside the foreign policy machine, from Foggy Bottom to Turtle Bay, the White House to Embassy Row.

Trump: ‘Second Amendment People’ Could Stop Clinton from Appointing Liberal Judges

Trump blames the media for the notion that he called for the assassination of Hillary Clinton.

GettyImages-587757740
GettyImages-587757740

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is pushing back against the notion that he suggested American gun owners do something to stop his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, from  appointing liberal justices to the Supreme Court.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is pushing back against the notion that he suggested American gun owners do something to stop his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, from  appointing liberal justices to the Supreme Court.

“Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish the Second Amendment,” Trump said to boos from a crowd in Wilmington, North Carolina, referencing the constitutional amendment that allows citizens to carry guns. “By the way, if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do folks,” he said, adding “…though the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know.”

Backlash to the seeming suggestion that gun owners who oppose Clinton could actually shoot her to stop her from appointing a justice was immediate. In a statement, Clinton’s campaign manager Robby Mook said, “This is simple — what Trump is saying is dangerous. A person seeking to be President of the United States should not suggest violence in any way.”

As outrage over the comment picked up on social media, Trump’s campaign blamed the whole incident on the “dishonest media.” He put out this statement in response.

Photo credit: SARA D. DAVIS/Getty Images

More from Foreign Policy

A photo collage illustration shows U.S. political figures plotted on a foreign-policy spectrum from most assertive to least. From left: Dick Cheney, Nikki Haley, Joe Biden, George H.W. Bush, Ron Desantis, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Bernie Sanders.
A photo collage illustration shows U.S. political figures plotted on a foreign-policy spectrum from most assertive to least. From left: Dick Cheney, Nikki Haley, Joe Biden, George H.W. Bush, Ron Desantis, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Bernie Sanders.

The Scrambled Spectrum of U.S. Foreign-Policy Thinking

Presidents, officials, and candidates tend to fall into six camps that don’t follow party lines.

A girl touches a photograph of her relative on the Memory Wall of Fallen Defenders of Ukraine in the Russian-Ukrainian war in Kyiv.
A girl touches a photograph of her relative on the Memory Wall of Fallen Defenders of Ukraine in the Russian-Ukrainian war in Kyiv.

What Does Victory Look Like in Ukraine?

Ukrainians differ on what would keep their nation safe from Russia.

A man is seen in profile standing several yards away from a prison.
A man is seen in profile standing several yards away from a prison.

The Biden Administration Is Dangerously Downplaying the Global Terrorism Threat

Today, there are more terror groups in existence, in more countries around the world, and with more territory under their control than ever before.

Then-Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez arrives for a closed-door briefing by intelligence officials at the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
Then-Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez arrives for a closed-door briefing by intelligence officials at the U.S. Capitol in Washington.

Blue Hawk Down

Sen. Bob Menendez’s indictment will shape the future of Congress’s foreign policy.