How far to the extreme right has Donald Trump drifted when it comes to the issue of gun rights in America? So far that now even the National Rifle Association (NRA) is asking him to dial it back a few notches.
This morning, the presumptive GOP nominee tried to clarify what he said last week at a campaign rally in Houston. At that rally, Trump suggested that if more people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando had been armed, fewer innocent people would have died. Trump even said it would have been “beautiful” to watch club patrons “shoot the son of a bitch.”
And yet now Trump is attempting to walk back some of his remarks, posting a note on Twitter in which he claims that he was “obviously talking about additional guards or employees.”
When I said that if, within the Orlando club, you had some people with guns, I was obviously talking about additional guards or employees
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 20, 2016
Over the weekend, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said on “Face the Nation” that he didn’t think “we should have firearms where people are drinking,” a direct contradiction of what Trump had bragged about in Houston.
And Chris Cox, the executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, had an even harsher statement on Trump’s remarks:
“No one thinks that people should go into a nightclub drinking and carrying firearms. That defies common sense. It also defies the law. It’s not what we’re talking about here.”
As the Trump campaign staggers into the GOP convention in July, it becomes clearer with each passing day that there is no larger strategy for how they intend to win the November general election. Instead, there is just one contradictory statement after another from the presumptive nominee. Can you imagine just how badly Hillary Clinton will rip Trump to shreds in a debate?
Trump is trying desperately to appeal to the most far right-wing of the Republican Party, apparently unaware that he has already won the nomination and needs to try and move to the center in preparation for November. He may well be the most undisciplined candidate to ever seek national office. And his fading poll numbers reflect just how discombobulated he and his campaign truly are.
Here’s Trump speaking in Houston on the Orlando massacre:
Featured Image Via YouTube Screengrab
