Hillary Clinton contended Wednesday that Donald Trump's recent remarks about gun owners incited violence and showed he is unfit to be president.
"Words matter, my friends. If you are running to be president, words can have tremendous consequences," Clinton said at a rally in Des Moines. "Yesterday we witnessed the latest in a long line of casual comments from Donald Trump that crossed the line. ... his casual inciting of violence. Every single one of these incidents shows us that Donald Trump simply does not have the temperament to be president and commander-in-chief of the United States."
Clinton's comments came a day after Trump made remarks about the Second Amendment, which some interpreted as suggesting violence as a means to prevent Clinton from picking judges. Speaking in North Carolina on Tuesday, Trump told a crowd that if Clinton "gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do folks."
"Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is I don't know," he added.
The Trump campaign quickly disputed the interpretation that it suggested violence, saying Trump wanted to unify voters who support the right to bear arms.
"It's called the power of unification — 2nd Amendment people have amazing spirit and are tremendously unified, which gives them great political power. And this year, they will be voting in record numbers, and it won't be for Hillary Clinton, it will be for Donald Trump," senior communications advisor Jason Miller said in a statement.
That did not stop the comments from igniting a firestorm of controversy, however, with several politicians and other prominent figures taking issue with them.