Assassination furore: Secret Service warning to Trump camp
THE US Secret Service has reportedly spoken to Donald Trump’s campaign to tell him to tone down his rhetoric in the wake of comments that were interpreted as a suggestion Hillary Clinton could be assassinated.
There was understood to have been more than one conversation between agents from the elite agency responsible for presidential security and Mr Trump’s campaign officials. Mr Trump has denied that his remarks were an incitement to violence.
The unprecedented development came as the billionaire was attacked from all sides as “disgusting” and accused of “inciting bloodshed”.
Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr, said: “As the daughter of a leader who was assassinated I find Trump’s comments distasteful, disturbing and dangerous.”
Gabby Giffords, the former Democratic congresswoman who survived an assassination attempt in 2011, said: “Responsible, stable individuals won’t take Trump’s rhetoric to its literal end, but his words may provide a magnet for those seeking infamy. They may provide inspiration or permission for those bent on bloodshed.” Erica Smegielski, daughter of Dawn Hochsprung, the school head who died in the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, said Mr Trump was “distasteful and disgusting”.
On Tuesday, at a rally in North Carolina, Mr Trump said if Hillary Clinton were elected and appointed Left-wing judges to the US Supreme Court there was nothing people could do. He then added: “The Second Amendment people, maybe there is … I don’t know.”
A former US Secret Service agent said that in speaking to Mr Trump’s campaign, agents would have told them that “words do matter”.
Jonathan Wackrow said: “We’re not hauling Donald Trump into the back of a police car to question him, but the Secret Service is encouraging the Trump campaign to clarify and lower the rhetoric around this.”
Last night, Mr Trump said that “no such meeting or conversation ever happened” with the Secret Service and blamed the media for exaggerating the story for “ratings”.
Earlier, as he tried to end the fallout from the gaffe, Mr Trump said he had been referring to the political voting power of gun owners, not inciting violence. He said: “This is a political movement. This is a strong powerful movement, the Second Amendment. There can be no other interpretation.”
Mrs Clinton said Mr Trump had “crossed the line” and accused him of “casually inciting violence”. She said: “It shows us he simply does not have the temperament to be president.”