Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), one of the first members of Congress who endorsed Donald Trump, on Tuesday evening defended the Republican nominee’s line about “Second Amendment” people, arguing that Trump just isn’t very “articulate.”
During an interview with Hunter on CNN, host Wolf Blitzer noted that after Trump said that there is “nothing you can do” if Clinton selects the next Supreme Court Justice, the GOP nominee added, “Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is.” Blitzer said that the way Trump made the comment suggests he was talking about what would happen after Clinton was elected, not before, as Trump and his surrogates have been arguing.
“I would disagree on this point — you’re treating Mr. Trump’s words like he is the most articulate person who’s ever graced our ears with his words, and that is not true. He is not a politician. He is not a person like you who’s very articulate, very well spoken,” Hunter said in response. “He’s a business person who’s running for president. So I don’t think the way he said that, and the sequence of his statements, I’m not going to judge him on that, because I don’t think that’s what he meant. And I think he can be inarticulate at times.”
Earlier in the interview, Hunter said that Trump was not suggesting that gun owners assassinate Clinton, but that he was noting that Second Amendment supporters should try to prevent Clinton from winning the election.
“What I think he means by that is what every politician, anybody running for office around the world has probably said multiple times at multiple events. We can stop this person. That’s it,” Hunter said.
“I don’t think there’s anything nefarious. I think the media is blowing this up. I don’t think it’s a story at all, frankly,” he continued. “I mean, I can’t count the number of times I’ve said at my events to my people who are going to vote for a me, ‘Hey, we can stop my opponent. We can stop Hillary Clinton. There’s something we can do about this person getting elected.'”
He also argued that Trump did not misspeak.
“I don’t even think that it was Trump misspeaking. I think Trump said what he meant, and what he meant was, we can stop Hillary Clinton from being elected,” Hunter said. “We can stop Hillary Clinton from being the next president who chooses who’s going to sit on the Supreme Court.”
