The 'Second Amendment People' Comment: Suggesting Gun Owners Could Act Against Hillary Clinton (August 2016)
Tier 3Documented2016-08-09 to 2016-08-10
Factual Summary
On August 9, 2016, at a campaign rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, Donald Trump made remarks about Hillary Clinton's potential Supreme Court nominations that were widely interpreted as suggesting that gun owners could take violent action against her.
Trump stated: "Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish, the Second Amendment. By the way, and if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don't know."
The remark was captured on video and broadcast live. The audience reaction included visible surprise and nervous laughter. A man seated directly behind Trump on camera appeared visibly startled.
The comment drew immediate and widespread condemnation. The Clinton campaign's manager, Robby Mook, stated: "This is simple. What Trump is saying is dangerous. A person seeking to be president of the United States should not suggest violence in any way." Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, a prominent advocate for gun control, called it "an assassination threat." Former CIA Director Michael Hayden stated on CNN: "If someone else had said that said outside the hall, he'd be in the back of a police wagon now with the Secret Service questioning him."
The United States Secret Service confirmed to CNN that it was "aware of the comments" and that it had spoken to the Trump campaign, with "more than one conversation" on the topic. According to the Secret Service official, the campaign told the agency that Trump did not intend to incite violence.
Trump's campaign offered two successive explanations. Initially, senior adviser Jason Miller stated that Trump was referring to the "power of unification" of Second Amendment supporters as a voting bloc. Trump himself later stated he was simply trying to "unify gun owners against Clinton in the voting booth." However, the grammatical structure of his statement, specifically the phrase "if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do," which references a scenario occurring after an election, contradicted the interpretation that he was referring to voting.
Primary Sources
1. Video recording of Trump rally, Wilmington, North Carolina, August 9, 2016 (broadcast live on multiple networks)
2. CNN, report confirming Secret Service conversations with the Trump campaign, August 10, 2016
3. Trump campaign statement via senior adviser Jason Miller, August 9, 2016
4. PolitiFact: "In context: Donald Trump's 'Second Amendment people' comment," August 9, 2016
Corroborating Sources
1. NPR: "Donald Trump Campaign Says 'Dishonest Media' Misinterpreted His Second Amendment Comment," August 9, 2016
2. ABC News: "Trump Says Maybe '2nd Amendment People' Can Stop Clinton's Supreme Court Picks," August 9, 2016
3. CNN: "Donald Trump: Gun advocates could deal with Hillary Clinton," August 9, 2016
4. NPR: "Trump's Second Amendment Rhetoric Again Veers Into Threatening Territory," September 16, 2016
5. NPR: "Former Secret Service Agent Considers Likely Responses To Trump Comments," August 10, 2016
Counterarguments and Context
Trump and his supporters maintained that the comment was a call for political mobilization, not a threat of violence. They argued that Trump was encouraging Second Amendment supporters to vote and to exercise their political influence, not to take violent action. The National Rifle Association echoed this interpretation. Supporters accused the media and the Clinton campaign of deliberately misconstruing an off-the-cuff remark to generate a controversy. Some commentators noted that political rhetoric is often imprecise and that interpreting the comment as a call for assassination required assuming the worst possible meaning. The Secret Service spoke to the campaign but took no public enforcement action, and no criminal investigation resulted from the remarks.
Author's Note
The text of Trump's statement is available on video, and readers can assess its meaning for themselves. The remark referenced a scenario in which Clinton had already won the election and was appointing judges, a context that contradicts the campaign's claim that he was referring to voting. Whether the comment was intended as a joke, a careless improvisation, or a deliberate suggestion is ultimately a question of intent that cannot be resolved from the outside. What is documented is that the Secret Service, the agency responsible for protecting candidates and officials from threats of political violence, found the remarks sufficiently concerning to engage the campaign directly. The comment also fits a broader pattern of Trump's rhetoric invoking or flirting with violence, documented across multiple entries in this project.