As Donald Trump dabbled in the "dangerous" art of ambiguity with his "Second Amendment people" comment,
New York Times op-ed columnist Thomas L. Friedman was far more pointed in his attack on the presidential nominee Wednesday, opining Trump's own "children should be ashamed of him."
"Trump knows what he is doing, and it is so dangerous in today's world," Friedman wrote, assailing the campaign's claim that the GOP candidate was just referring to the "power of unification."
"People are playing with fire here, and there is no bigger flamethrower than Donald Trump. Forget politics; he is a disgusting human being. His children should be ashamed of him."
Trump's children include Ivanka Trump, who is wildly popular and might be considered a
potential presidential cabinet member to advocate for women's interests. She called her father
"incredibly level-headed" amid the attacks he receives from his critics, which include the media.
Speaking at a North Carolina rally Tuesday, Trump caused this latest firestorm with the following remarks:
"Hillary wants to abolish — essentially abolish the Second Amendment," Trump said. "By the way, 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."
Friedman likened Trump's words to a plausible call for gun rights activists to assassinate Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, as so many Trump critics were quick to interpret as well,
including Bernice King, the daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr., who tweeted:
"And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin got assassinated," Friedman wrote. "And that's what the Jewish extremist Yigal Amir did to Rabin. Why not? He thought he had permission from a whole segment of Israel's political class."
The only killing Friedman called for in his editorial was a bludgeoning in the November election.
"I only pray that he is not simply defeated," he wrote, "but that he loses all 50 states so that the message goes out across the land — unambiguously, loud and clear: The likes of you should never come this way again."
Trump's campaign issued a
"statement on dishonest media" Tuesday night, claiming Trump's remark was referring to the power to vote, not to commit gun violence.
"It's called the power of unification — 2nd Amendment people have amazing spirit and are tremendously unified, which gives them great political power," Jason Miller, Trump's senior communications adviser, wrote. "And this year, they will be voting in record numbers, and it won't be for Hillary Clinton, it will be for Donald Trump."
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