Hillary Clinton might be able to just take a vacation until the election since Donald Trump can’t go two days without saying something colossally stupid. Donald Trump was in Wilmington, North Carolina speaking at a rally and said the following about if Hillary wins the election.
“If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is. I don’t know. But — but I’ll tell you what. That will be a horrible day.” – Donald Trump
Trump advocates came out soon after saying that he was simply motivating Second Amendment people to go out and vote which was the “something” Donald Trump was suggesting. This was also echoed by Donald Trump who tweeted out the following.
Media desperate to distract from Clinton's anti-2A stance. I said pro-2A citizens must organize and get out vote to save our Constitution!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 10, 2016
So what is the importance of words? Why is this such a huge debate over the meaning of what he said? As President of the United States, your words are your tools and you need to make sure you precisely communicate your meaning. The way Donald Trump presented his statement from beginning to end seems to suggest he was implying violence. Donald Trump threw that remark in, almost an an aside and like he was saying something he shouldn’t be saying. Also the fact that the story he was telling was about IF Hillary won and what she would do. Trump was stating that IF Hillary won then no one could do anything about it. Except the Second Amendment people.
The story about Trump actually meaning that they should go vote doesn’t fit the story he was telling which was about IF Hillary won and that IF she won there’s nothing anyone could do to stop her from picking her judges and then added that it may be something Second Amendment people could handle. Being about voting wouldn’t work well in the context of that story, but maybe he’s just a bad storyteller? I can see the possibility that Trump DID mean about voting and he just went completely off-topic for that one statement and then back to the story he was telling.
The problem comes with the fact that Trump has not shied away from supporting violence at so many of his rallies so he can’t be shocked when he says this and, surprise-surprise, people think he’s suggesting violence.
Being the President means that you will have a lot of power with your words and if Trump is really serious about this election he is going to have to tone it down and stay on some kind of a script. He’s just constantly putting his foot in his mouth and when you can’t even run a competent campaign how do you think you will be able to run the country?