Mike Pence said the media was ignoring Hillary Clinton by latching onto everything Donald Trump says. | AP Photo Pence attacks media after Trump's latest controversy

PITTSBURGH — Donald Trump was in hot water Tuesday for comments he made about “Second Amendment people” stopping Hillary Clinton, but his running mate, Mike Pence, says the media are at fault and accused the press of doing what it can to elect Hillary Clinton by concocting almost daily controversies around his running mate.

“It seems like every single day the national press latches on to some other issue about my running mate, just each and every day of the week,” Pence told a crowd of a few hundred Tuesday night, extending his usual stump speech riff on the press. “But you know what they’re not talking about? Anything having to do with Hillary Clinton.”


“You’re not even going to believe this — yesterday at a rally outside of Orlando, Florida, the father of the very radical Islamic terrorist who murdered 49 Americans attended a rally, was on television through most of the rally sitting behind Hillary Clinton. And he said he was there because he supports Hillary Clinton because she’s, quote, ‘good on national security,’” Pence said. “Now the media’s not talking about that, I expect because Hillary Clinton’s been a disaster on national security.”

National media outlets, including POLITICO, the New York Times and the Washington Post, reported on Seddique Mateen’s attendance at the Clinton rally, which the Clinton campaign said it did not know about in advance.

“The media stays focused on our side of the aisle,” he said. “It’s almost as though the Steelers had to play an entire season at away games, in front of hostile crowds, with hometown refs. But they’d still win, wouldn’t they?”

“It’s 2-on-1 with the media doing most of Hillary’s work for her and Donald Trump is still winning for the American people,” he said. “The man just doesn’t quit.”

The event took place a few hours after Trump’s remark that “Second Amendment people” might have recourse if Hillary Clinton won the election, eliciting stinging condemnations for what some interpreted as an invitation to violence in case of a Clinton victory.

Pence said the comments were being misconstrued.

“Hillary Clinton’s made it very clear that she wants to see changes in the right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms,” Pence told NBC 10 Philadelphia when he was asked about the comments after an afternoon event in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. “[What] Donald Trump is clearly saying is that people who cherish that right, people who believe that firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens make our communities more safe not less safe, should be involved in the political process and let their voice be heard.”

The comments were “of course not” meant to incite violence, Pence said. It is not the first time Pence has lashed out at the media after Trump has made controversial comments. When Trump seemed to encourage Russian hackers to find Clinton’s missing emails, Pence said the comments were “laced with sarcasm” and intended as a joke. He also said the news media have not paid enough attention to the victims of the 2012 attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

The two Pennsylvania events came the same day that a Quinnipiac poll showed Clinton opening up a 10 percentage point lead in the state, 52 percent to 42 percent.

Near the close of Pence’s Lancaster event, he stepped off the stage to comfort an 11-year-old boy whose father is terminally ill. The boy asked about “right to try” legislation, which allows terminally ill patients to access experimental treatments. Pence, who signed a similar law in Indiana, asked the crowd to pray for the boy and his father as he joined him among the crowd.

It was an unscripted moment — quite unlike those of his running mate — and it underscored an ability to show empathy.

Pence will be campaigning in Ohio on Wednesday.