Trump calls for ‘tougher tone’ on Clinton

Donald Trump said that it’s “time for a tougher tone” against Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, hours after saying earlier in the day “the Second Amendment" may be the only way to stop her from appointing federal judges if elected president.

“She said about me not so long ago, my tone, she said I don’t like his tone,” the Republican nominee said at a rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina. “Now, in the Middle East they’re chopping off heads, they’re drowning people in steel cages, they’re burying people in the sand and she doesn’t like my tone. I think it’s time maybe for a little tougher tone, folks, in all fairness. Time for a tougher tone.”


The call comes as the campaign is again mired in controversy from his earlier remarks in Wilmington, North Carolina, interpreted by many as a joke about using violence to stop his political opponent, Clinton. Republicans and Democrats alike resoundingly rebuked the remarks Tuesday.

The Trump campaign denied that his Second Amendment remarks were meant to advocate violence about Clinton, a defense reiterated by Trump supporter and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani at the North Carolina rally Tuesday evening.

“I listened to Donald Trump’s speech in Wilmington," Giuliani said, "and what he said very clearly was that if Hillary Clinton were elected president she would get to elect judges to the Supreme Court and among other things that they would do to destroy us would be to do away with the Second Amendment and your right to bear arms."

“And then he said, and you have the power to do something about it, and what he meant by that is you have the power to vote against her. You have the power to campaign against her. You have the power to speak against her. You know why? Because you’re Americans” Giuliani said, reiterating the campaign’s defense that Trump was referring to political mobilization in his address.

The Republican nominee went on to unveil a new charge against Clinton, insinuating that she should face a sentence similar to disgraced former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison for corruption on Tuesday.

“He’s in jail for 14 years and Hillary Clinton is allowed to delete 33,000 emails. Think of that. What’s going on?” Trump said, as the chants of “Lock her up!” broke out among the crowd.

The real estate mogul also continued his offensive against the potential Supreme Court appointments in a Clinton presidency, saying that if the Democratic nominee had her way the United States would be “gone as a country” for decades.

“If Hillary appoints justices of the Supreme Court, you’re going to have a lot of problems folks” he said. “If they’re on the court for twenty or twenty-five years [each] … We’re gone for like 75 years, meaning we’re gone as a country because we will be a large scale version of Venezuela. So we can’t let it happen.”

Claiming that the Second Amendment was currently “under siege,” the freewheeling candidate went on to blast Clinton’s proposals on guns.

“If you knew where she stood on the second amendment, on the – she basically wants to take your safety away, she wants to take your guns away,” Trump said, parroting a claim the Clinton camp has repeatedly denied.