WASHINGTON—In a massive breach of democratic norms, Donald Trump appeared to suggest Tuesday that gun owners could assassinate rival Hillary Clinton to prevent her from selecting Supreme Court justices.

It was not completely clear what Trump meant in his brief aside, and his campaign claimed that he had been misinterpreted by a “dishonest media.” But even the hint of a call to violence was astonishing, perhaps the most incendiary moment of his entire campaign, and it set off a furious response across the ideological spectrum.

Trump made the remark near the end of a typically freewheeling speech, this one in Wilmington, N.C., in which he railed against the Democratic presidential nominee as a “wacky” and “unfit” criminal who shouldn’t be “allowed” to run.

“Hillary wants to abolish — essentially abolish — the Second Amendment,” Trump said. “By the way, and if she gets to pick — if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know.”

He continued, “But I’ll tell you what, that will be a horrible day. If Hillary gets to put her judges.”

The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution refers to the “right of the people to keep and bear arms.” By “Second Amendment people,” Trump seemed to be referring to gun-rights advocates.

Trump’s vice-presidential nominee, Mike Pence, said the businessman was “of course not” advocating violence, and one of his surrogates, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, called the media “corrupt” for suggesting he was. In a statement, Trump’s campaign said he was merely calling for gun-rights advocates to vote for him in large numbers.

But former Democratic congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, who was severely wounded in a shooting in 2011, said Trump’s words “may provide inspiration or permission for those bent on bloodshed.” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut called the remark “an assassination threat, seriously upping the possibility of a national tragedy and crisis.”

“I saw it reported, and when I read the quote, I really frankly couldn’t believe he said it,” Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Kaine told reporters in Texas. “Nobody who is seeking a leadership position, especially the presidency, the leadership of the country, should do anything to countenance violence, and that’s what he was saying.”

Trump’s enthusiastic crowd did not appear to have a vocal reaction to the remark, and Trump insisted to Fox News that “nobody in that room” thought he had said anything untoward. One supporter seated on stage behind him, though, became wide-eyed, turning to his neighbour in apparent surprise.

“This is simple — what Trump is saying is dangerous. A person seeking to be the President of the United States should not suggest violence in any way,” Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said in a statement.

The Democrats were joined in outrage by a smattering of prominent Republicans. Michael Hayden, the CIA director under George W. Bush, called Trump a “clear and present danger” to the United States. Anyone else who said the same thing, he said on CNN, would be detained by the Secret Service.

“The U.S. Secret Service is aware of Mr. Trump’s comments,” said a spokeswoman for the agency that protects both Trump and Clinton, refusing to comment further.

Trump has plummeted in the polls over the past two weeks amid widespread concern about his temperament and behaviour. With three months until election day, he is facing the possibility of a landslide defeat.

He attempted to change the prevailing narrative with a pre-written economic speech on Monday. Almost invariably, though, he has immediately followed such set-piece Teleprompter addresses with off-message unforced errors in unscripted rally speeches or television interviews.

Though Trump had never before broached the subject of harming Clinton, he has consistently attempted to portray her as an illegitimate lawbreaker. Crowds at both of his Tuesday rallies chanted “lock her up,” the most popular refrain of the Republican convention in July.

He did not respond to the controversy at the second rally, held in Fayetteville, N.C. Instead, he simply repeated his comments about Clinton’s nonexistent plan to abolish the Second Amendment without adding the inflammatory aside.

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The cleanup was left to Giuliani, his warm-up speaker, who said anyone who believes Trump was talking about killing Clinton is “corrupt.”

“What he meant by that was: You have the power to vote against her, you have the power to campaign against her,” he said. He called on voters to “get rid of her,” then sarcastically addressed the media.

“When I said get rid of her,” he said, “what I meant was defeat her in the election.

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