Washington Post Pours Cold Water on Media’s ‘Tuzla Dash’

The Washington Post punctured the media’s hyperventilation bag over comments made by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump regarding Hillary Clinton and the Second Amendment on Tuesday.

Trump is being accused by the Clinton campaign and some journalists of calling for her assassination, along with any of her Supreme Court nominees. Here is the actual transcript of his remarks and the crowd’s response:

(CROWD BOOING) If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is. I don’t know. But — but I’ll tell you what. That will be a horrible day. If — if Hillary gets to put her judges — right now, we’re tied. You see what’s going on.

… you see what’s going on? We tied because Scalia – this was not suppose to happen. Justice Scalia was going to be around for ten more years at least and this is what happens. That was a horrible thing.

So now look at it. So Hillary essentially wants to abolish the Second Amendment. Now, speaking to the NRA folks – who are great – when you – when you — and I’ll tell you, they endorsed me.

(APPLAUSE)

They endorsed me very early. My son’s a member. I’m a member.

If you – we can add I think the National Rifle Association, we can add the Second Amendment to the Justices – they almost go – in a certain way, hand in hand. Now the Justices are going to do things that are so important and we have such great Justices, you saw my list of 11 that have been vetted and respected.

It is clear Trump was joking. That would not excuse an actual assassination threat, which this clearly was not. At worst, Trump was talking about gun rights activists resisting the confiscation of their guns — an idea as old as “come and take it,” or Charlton Heston’s “cold, dead hands.” The Trump campaign explained that he was referring to the political “unification” of conservatives behind the Second Amendment. The Washington Post said Trump’s meaning was “unclear,” and noted what the audience heard:

Some who attended Trump’s rally argued that Trump was not trying to incite violence with his comments.

“In no way was he threatening Hillary,” said Sarah Smith, a 72-year-old retiree. “Anybody who thinks that is delusional.”

Smith said she thought Trump was simply making a comment about the importance of gun rights and the threat posed by judges appointed by the Democratic nominee.

“The Supreme Court is all-important,” she said.

James Renaud, 66, said he took the comment “at face value” — meaning gun owners have to mobilize lest Clinton be able to stack the Supreme Court. “It was just off-the-cuff talking.”

And Keri Malkin, 49, said she didn’t “hear it that way at all,” suggesting the insinuation that the comment was a threat against Clinton was engineered by her supporters.

“Hillary lies a lot, so it’s no surprise that her supporters would lie,” she said.

The Post noted the Clinton camp’s own interpretation, as expressed by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), who called Trump’s remarks “an assassination threat, seriously upping the possibility of a national tragedy & crisis.”

In 2008, Hillary Clinton caused controversy with the “Tuzla dash,” a made-up story about how she had to duck sniper fire when landing in the former Yugoslavia during her tenure as First Lady.

Now, instead of non-existent sniper fire, the media are conjuring non-existent assassination attempts.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. His new book, See No Evil: 19 Hard Truths the Left Can’t Handle, is available from Regnery through Amazon. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.