Former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ), who survived an assassination attempt in 2011, urged Americans in a statement Tuesday to condemn Donald Trump’s remark about “Second Amendment people” taking action to stop Hillary Clinton from appointing Supreme Court judges, saying it could incite violence.
In a statement, Giffords and her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, urged Americans to draw a “bright red line” between political speech and advocating violence.
“Responsible, stable individuals won’t take Trump’s rhetoric to its literal end, but his words may provide a magnet for those seeking infamy,” their statement read. “They may provide inspiration or permission for those bent on bloodshed.”
They went on in the statement to urge Trump’s supporters and the GOP nominee himself to “to unambiguously condemn these remarks and the violence they insinuate.”
Giffords was shot in the head at a meeting with constituents outside a supermarket in Tucson, Arizona in 2011, leaving her critically wounded. Six others were killed in the massacre.
She was able to walk onstage at the Democratic National Convention last month without assistance. There, she addressed delegates and argued Hillary Clinton would work to reduce gun violence if elected president.
Read the full statement below via the New York Daily News:
“Donald Trump might astound Americans on a routine basis, but we must draw a bright red line between political speech and suggestions of violence. 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.”
“What political leaders say matters to their followers. When candidates descend into coarseness and insult, our politics follow suit. When they affirm violence, we should fear that violence will follow.”
“It must be the responsibility of all Americans – from Donald Trump himself, to his supporters, to those who remain silent or oppose him – to unambiguously condemn these remarks and the violence they insinuate. The integrity of our democracy and the decency of our nation is at stake.”
When you hear this from people like her, who suffered through the horror of results of this kind of rhetoric and manufactured outrage and hate it really hits home even more. We should demand that all our citizens behave like responsible members of a civil society. And obviously this applies a million fold to those wanting to “lead” others.
“The integrity of our democracy and the decency of our nation is at stake.”
I think the rotten RNC convention was an inflection point for the public at least. Donald got the nomination on scorched earth. It took a little while after that for it to reflect in the polls. He’s not coming back. No way, no how. I don’t care what wikileaks has up its sleeve. It’s not enough to get Donald Trump elected.
The only possible way HRC is going to lose is if Trump gives up his own nomination and the Republicans pick somebody else.
It’s pretty clear he was saying that if the voters don’t stop Clinton, people with guns will be the only ones who can. Of course his staunchest supporters will do back flips to say that’s not what he meant.
In the best possible light, you still have a twisted individual who is unfit to be elected. The President of the United States’ every utterance is carefully parsed around the globe. Donald Trump can’t go a day without saying something his supporters need to do acrobatics in order to reinterpret as innocuous rather than the horrific way they’re understood by vast numbers of people who heard them with their own ears. How could this person ever be president?
And again, that’s only if you accept that he didn’t say what he actually said.
Ms. Giffords has given more for her country than Donald Trump can ever hope to give in his wildest dreams.
Meanwhile those same staunch supporters do backflips to tie every death of every person even tenuously connected to the Clintons to foul play. That includes my father-in-law, with whom I had enjoyed a good relationship until recently.
I hate saying it but this cohort of the older generation really can’t exit fast enough.