Donald Trump: You Only Need Armed Guards If You’re A Gun Nut (WITH VIDEO)


Donald Trump has said and done a lot of outrageous and offensive things since launching his bid to buy the presidency. Remember, this is a guy who finds it acceptable to plaster a private cell phone number on social media, mock the disabled, and suggested that protesters who get beaten up at his rallies deserve it.

So a tweet he sent out on Saturday morning, less than 24 hours after being formally endorsed by the National Rifle Association, is par for the course.

(Screenshot from Trump's Twitter feed)
(Screenshot from Trump’s Twitter feed)

It turns out that Trump was doubling down on the most nauseating part of his speech at the NRA convention. He claimed that since Hillary was “the most anti-gun, anti-Second Amendment candidate ever to run for office,” she didn’t deserve armed Secret Service protection. Trump demanded that Hillary and Bill “let their bodyguards immediately disarm” if they are so opposed to guns.

It’s bad enough that Trump completely twisted Hillary’s position on this issue. Hillary supports “common-sense reforms” to our gun laws. Among them are niversal background checks, tougher measures to keep guns away from violent criminals, terrorists, and the mentally ill, and all but ending the gun show loophole.

However, suggesting that Hillary doesn’t deserve full protection is simply outrageous. You mean to tell me that if you’re a sitting president, presidential candidate, former president, or a member of either party’s immediate family, and you support even the most basic measures to bring sanity to our gun laws, you should more or less be left to fend for yourself? That’s more or less what Trump is saying.

To give you an idea just how outrageous this is, imagine if a prominent liberal suggested that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney didn’t deserve armed Secret Service protection because they are war criminals. Or imagine if someone suggested that Trump didn’t deserve armed Secret Service protection because his hate-spewing put them at undue risk. Either suggestion would be no less outrageous than what Trump is suggesting here.

The most benign interpretation of this is that the Donald is trying too hard to appease the NRA. After all, as CBS News’ Major Garrett told us on Friday night, Trump was once a strong supporter of gun control. Watch here.

Specifically, Trump once favored an assault weapons ban and a waiting period to buy firearms. In his 2000 book, “The America We Deserve,” Trump even rapped the GOP for kowtowing to the NRA and opposing “even limited restrictions” on guns. Indeed, as late as the Sandy Hook shooting, Trump supported many of the reforms that were ultimately derailed in the Senate.

From where I’m sitting, the Donald has become the epitome of the very thing he claims to despise–a politician who will say and do absolutely anything to be elected.

Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello.