The New York Daily News is calling on Donald Trump to end his presidential campaign, saying the Republican nominee has gone from “offensive to reckless” with his recent Second Amendment remarks.
Media personalities have accused Mr. Trump of threatening violence against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton after he suggested Tuesday during a campaign stop in North Carolina that gun rights advocates might be able to stop Mrs. Clinton’s appointment of Supreme Court justices.
“Hillary wants to abolish — essentially abolish the Second Amendment,” he 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.”
Mr. Trump later slammed the “dishonest media” for spinning his words and insisted he was referring to the power that Second Amendment supporters hold.
The front page of Wednesday’s New York Daily News responded: “This isn’t a joke any more.”
“When Trump hinted gun-rights supporters shoot Hillary, he went from offensive to reckless. He must end his campaign,” the front page says. “If he doesn’t, the GOP needs to abandon him.”
The newspaper, which has been a vocal opponent of Mr. Trump’s candidacy, said in an editorial posted Tuesday night that the nominee’s hint at “assassination” should be the last straw for the Republican Party.
“Donald Trump must end his campaign for the White House in a reckoning with his own madness, while praying that nothing comes of his musing about an assassination of Hillary Clinton,” the editorial said. “In the event that Trump fails to abandon his candidacy — as he seems determined to — the Republican Party, including vice presidential nominee Mike Pence, must instead abandon Trump for toying with political bloodshed.
“Trump can offer no apology sufficient to make up for insidiously making light of murder,” it said. “Nor can he explain away or justify planting a notion that could spur a demented follower to kill a political rival, a President or Supreme Court justices.”
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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