Today Donald Trump made comments that were widely interpreted as hinting at violence against his political opponent.
“If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don't know.”
While his campaign awkwardly tried to insist that Trump was merely praising the "unified" political power of "2nd Amendment people", that spin was dead on arrival; soon, one of the same spokespersons offered the theory that he was merely saying such violence "could" happen, not "would" happen. The odds are good that by tomorrow morning they'll have settled on something else.
Donald Trump held another rally later in the day, but conspicuously did not address his earlier comments. He did, however, find time to visit with Sean Hannity.
We can presume that this story will occupy most of tomorrow's news coverage. In a vain attempt at keeping up with the rest of this wreck of a campaign, here's your roundup of the rest of the day's Trump news.
• The Washington Post's fact checker dubs the Trump campaign's new conspiracy theory, that Hillary Clinton's emails somehow led to the execution of an Iranian nuclear scientist, "among the stupidest claims made so far in this campaign."
• Twitter, however, had a lot of fun with Trump's claim. It turns out you can say almost anything, so long as you suppose that "many people" are saying the same thing!
• Mark down another one: Maine Sen. Susan Collins announces she will not support Donald Trump, calling him "unworthy of being our president."
• How much has the Donald Trump campaign spent on general election advertising so far? Zero. They haven't spent a dime.
• Donald did, however, announce that his wife Melania Trump will be holding a press conference to prove that she did not enter the country illegally. So we'll at least get that cleared up, at some unspecified future point.
• The reaction to Trump's big "economic" speech yesterday continues to roll in, and economic experts aren't impressed. It turns out tax cuts for the rich along with far more vague "hyperbole" about the rest is something we've tried before, and it's not going over as well this time around.
• Ex-KKK leader David Duke credits Trump with his own re-entry into Republican politics.
• Fox News' Sean Hannity continues to stump for Trump, pushing the lunatic-invented theory that Hillary Clinton is in alarmingly poor health because reasons. It's not going well.
• 41% of Trump voters believe that Hillary Clinton is the devil. 42% Say she isn't, and 17% are unsure. In related news, 47% of Trump voters claim they too saw the imaginary footage of Iran collecting "ransom" money from the United States, even though Trump himself has now admitted he was mistaken, and 48% believe Obama is to blame for Humayun Khan's death in Iraq—which happened in 2004, four years before Obama was elected. The lesson here is that apparently 40% of Trump voters will believe anything that comes out of a Trump spokesperson's mouth, which right there is a terrifying thought.
• Trump continues to make noises about backing out of the three planned presidential debates, the date and structure of which were decided a year ago.
• Immigrants who have been targeted by Trump's campaign-trail xenophobia are fed up.
• I was a Minuteman III nuclear launch officer. Take it from me: We can't let Trump become president.
• Second verse, same as the first.
Donald Trump on Tuesday dismissed calls to change his strategy despite falling behind Hillary Clinton in recent polls.
"I certainly don't think it's appropriate to start changing all of a sudden when you've been winning," Trump said. "I think it's going to work out well."