Top adviser: Trump not ‘artful’ when he speaks

by Jesse Byrnes - 08/10/16 9:12 AM ET

Adviser on Trump's 2nd Amandment remarks: "When Mr. Trump speaks it's not as artful as a lot of people might think" https://t.co/qTJ58lXTTr

— New Day (@NewDay) August 10, 2016

A senior aide to Donald Trump on Wednesday blamed the GOP presidential nominee’s latest controversial remarks on a moment of inarticulate speaking.

“When Mr. Trump speaks, it’s not as artful as a lot of people might think,” Trump national co-chair and policy adviser Sam Clovis told CNN’s “New Day.”

{mosads}”When I heard what he had to say, I didn’t take it as inciting anything,” he added of Trump’s comment on “Second Amendment people” being able to stop Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

“I thought he was talking about the 100 million gun owners in America that own 300 million guns. I count myself among them,” Clovis said.

“It’s a lot of votes, and that’s what’s at stake,” he added, naming several constitutional amendments.

Trump’s apparent joke Tuesday about gun owners possibly taking action against Clinton prompted immediate backlash from Democrats.

“This is simple — what Trump is saying is dangerous. A person seeking to be President of the United States should not suggest violence in any way,” Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said in a statement.

The Secret Service said on Twitter that it was “aware” of the comments from Trump made earlier in the afternoon.

Trump’s campaign quickly issued a statement saying Trump was speaking of Second Amendment supporters unifying to have “great political power.”

While Trump’s campaign has accused media of unfairly covering his remarks, Clovis acknowledged that coverage of a major party’s candidate should be extensive.

“I didn’t have any issue with it at all, but I can understand how people leap to this, certainly the media,” he said. “People hang on every word. They parse every word, as perhaps they should.”

Tags Donald Trump Hillary Clinton