Donald Trump went on the battle path against Hillary Clinton in his address Friday to the National Rifle Association (NRA) as the nation’s most prominent gun group formally endorsed Trump.
The presumptive Republican nominee challenged the Clintons to disarm their security guards if they want to abolish the Second Amendment. Trump laid out a plan to abolish gun-free zones and repeal President Obama’s executive orders. Trump also called for Hillary Clinton to release her own short list of Supreme Court justice picks.
“To get the endorsement, believe me, is a fantastic honor,” Trump promised the NRA crowd in Louisville, Kentucky, which greeted the Republican champion with frequent waves of ecstatic cheers. “I will not let you down.”
“Hillary said the Supreme Court is wrong on the Second Amendment. That’s bad,” Trump said. “Heartless hypocrites like the Clintons…let their bodyguards immediately disarm” if they want to feel what it’s like for unarmed civilians in this country. “They should immediately disarm.”
“She wants to take your guns away,” Trump said of Clinton. “The late hero Charlton Heston, who you all knew, did battle with the Clintons to protect our Second Amendment.”
“This isn’t like a job,” he said of people who work for the NRA. “They really, really believe. We are lucky to have people like that.”
“If they knew there were guns in the room, they might not have done it,” Trump said of the San Bernardino shooting by Muslim radicals. “But you would have had bullets going in the other direction, and the carnage would not have been the same.” The NRA crowd gave that line a massive applause.
“Hillary Clinton, and I call her Crooked Hillary, she wants to abolish the Second Amendment. We’re not going to let that happen I’ll tell you that right now. We are going to preserve it, we are going to cherish it,” Trump said.
“We are getting rid of gun free zones. We’re getting rid of them,” Trump said.
“I’d like to call for Hillary Clinton to release a list, too,” Trump said of Supreme Court picks. Trump has already released his conservative list.
Trump opened by reading out some good news for him: “Last night, Rasmussen, which is a very highly respected poll, came out. Trump 42, Crooked Hillary Clinton 37.”
Trump also made an interesting challenge to Clinton:
“You should have non-teleprompter only speeches when you’re running for president.”