Clinton rounds on Trump for ‘casual inciting of violence’

Donald Trump’s suggestion that gun rights activists could stop his Democratic opponent from curtailing their right to bear firearms proves he does not have the temperament to be US president, Hillary Clinton said last night.

Referring to Mr Trump’s comments on Tuesday and other controversial speeches, Ms Clinton said: “Every single one of these incidences shows us that Donald Trump simply does not have the temperament to be president and commander in chief of the United States.”

“Words matter, my friends,” she told a rally in Des Moines, Iowa. “And if you are running to be president or you are president of the United States, words can have tremendous consequences.

“Yesterday, we witnessed the latest in a long line of casual comments from Donald Trump that crossed the line,” she said, citing “his casual inciting of violence”.

At a rally in North Carolina on Tuesday, Mr Trump said: “Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish, the second amendment. 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 I’ll tell you what, that will be a horrible day.”

The US constitution’s second amendment guarantees the right to bear firearms.

CNN reported yesterday that the US Secret Service, which investigates threats against sitting presidents and party nominees, has had “more than one conversation” with Mr Trump’s campaign regarding the comments about Clinton and gun rights.

However, a federal official familiar with the matter took issue with the report and told Reuters there had been no formal conversations with the campaign regarding the comment.

Divisive candidacy

High-profile Republicans and rank-and-file voters yesterday struggled with how to best reject Mr Trump’s divisive candidacy, as the nominee dealt with fallout from his remark.

MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman from Florida, wrote an opinion piece in the Washington Post saying the party was in "uncharted waters" and called for leaders to start looking for ways to remove Mr Trump from the ticket.

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll taken between August 5th and 8th showed that nearly one-fifth of 396 registered Republicans want Mr Trump to drop out of the race for the White House and another 10 per cent “don’t know” whether the Republican nominee should or not.

Strategists, however, cautioned that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to remove Mr Trump from the Republican ticket.

“It’s wishful thinking to believe the Republicans are going to replace its nominee after the convention. People are grasping at straws,” Ron Bonjean, a Republican strategist unaffiliated with Mr Trump said.

The best moves for Mr Trump’s detractors may be withholding their endorsements, refusing to raise money for his campaign, throwing their weight behind Clinton or holding out hope that he voluntarily quits.

Mrs Clinton’s campaign now has a website for Republicans and political independents to sign up to pledge their support. It lists 50 prominent Republicans and Independents who have endorsed her so far, including former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg.

John Negroponte, former director of national intelligence under president George W Bush, and former Republican US representative Chris Shays of Connecticut, were among those who announced their support yesterday.

“Donald Trump lost me a long time ago,” Mr Shays told MSNBC. “He does and says everything my mom and dad taught me never to say and do. He doesn’t understand the basic requirements of being president of the United States. And, frankly, he’s dangerous.”

Earlier this week, 50 Republican national security officials had signed an open letter questioning the real estate mogul’s temperament, calling him reckless and unqualified.

Other top Republicans, including Senator Susan Collins of Maine, have disavowed Mr Trump.

Washington elite

Mr Trump has dismissed the defections and criticism as an unsurprising reaction of the so- called Washington elite to his drive to change the status quo.

“He has dug himself a deep hole overall because he’s allowed the race to become a referendum on his fitness to be president,” said Republican strategist and Trump supporter Ford O’Connell. “If he’s going to win this, he has to make it a referendum on Hillary Clinton and the ‘rigged system’.”

Mr Trump was seeking to reset his campaign this week with an economic policy speech after a series of missteps including a clash with the parents of fallen Muslim American army captain Humayun Khan.

But Mr Trump’s remark about gun-rights activists sparked a torrent of criticism on social media that he was effectively calling for Mrs Clinton’s assassination.

Republican Party rules and state laws would make it difficult at this juncture to replace Mr Trump on ballots ahead of the November 8th election. – (Reuters)