Trump: "Second Amendment People" Could Stop Clinton; Speaker Ryan Tries To Fend Off GOP Challenger.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening. John Berman here, in for Anderson. Tonight, was it something he said? Did Donald Trump today suggest or think out loud or even just joke, joke about someone taking a shot at Hillary Clinton if she becomes president? You're going to hear what he said today. You'll hear the uproar over it. Our panel will debate it. A former CIA and NSA director will comment on it. You will hear Donald Trump's own late reaction on the controversy, that his remarks, whatever he meant have caused. First, though, the words themselves and CNN's Sara Murray who joins us from the campaign trail. Sara, what's the latest?</s>SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, John, Donald Trump really left it up to his allies to spring to his defense on the Second Amendment controversy he set off Mike Pence at a political rally and defended Donald Trump's comments and right here in North Carolina, Rudy Giuliani defended Donald Trump saying when he talked Second Amendment supporters earlier, he was talking about political power, there was no threat against Hillary Clinton. As for Trump, he stayed silent on the issue this evening as he tried to get back on message.</s>MURRAY (voice-over): Donald Trump setting off controversy with another off-hand comment, one some believe amounts to a violent threat against his political opponent.</s>DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Hillary wants to abolish -- essentially abolish the Second Amendment. If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don't know.</s>MURRAY: Trump's suggestion that Second Amendment voters have the power to stop Clinton, instantly raising questions about what the candidate meant, whether he was looking to coalesce gun supporters behind him or if he meant something more nefarious. The Clinton campaign quickly seizing on Trump's comment as a sign the GOP nominee is inciting violence, saying in a statement, "This is simple -- what Trump is saying is dangerous. A person seeking to be the president of the United States should not suggest violence in any way." The Trump campaign swiped back, billing the issue as a media-driven controversy and insisting Trump was simply trying to rally gun voters. In a statement, the Trump camp says, "It's called the power of unification -- Second 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." But Trump's latest off-the-cuff comment on a week when he was striving to stay on message is exactly the sort of flair up giving members of his own party pause. The latest defector, Senator Susan Collins of Maine who penned an op- ed saying she will not vote for Trump. The GOP senator even telling Jamie Gangel that Trump poses a risk to the nation.</s>SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: Donald Trump, in my judgment, would make a perilous world even more dangerous.</s>MURRAY: Her announcement coming soon after a group of 50 GOP national security officials said they can't back Trump either, arguing he would put at risk our country's national security. Trump quickly dismissed the snub.</s>TRUMP: These are 50 people that have been running our country forever, and they said we can't support Donald Trump. The reason they can't, you know why? Because I'm not going to hire these people. I don't want these people.</s>MURRAY: But as he struggles to keep his party in line and lags in the poll, Trump says the key to the victory is more of the same.</s>TRUMP: I've always had a good temperament and it's got me here. We've beaten people in the primaries and I certainly don't think it's appropriate to start changing all of a sudden when you've been winning.</s>MURRAY: As well as finding openings to hammer his Democratic opponent, today mocking Clinton for saying she short-circuited her handling of the e-mail issue.</s>TRUMP: Could you imagine if I said that I short-circuited? They would be calling for my execution. They'd bring back the electric chair. It's one thing to make bad decisions and it's another thing to be wacky and make bad decisions.</s>BERMAN: All right. Sara Murray back with us now. Sara, the initial comments about the Second Amendment and he had a whole rally after that, did Donald Trump make any effort to clarify or clean up those remarks?</s>MURRAY: No, he really didn't, John. He talked a lot about the Second Amendment, but he did not deal with the controversy specifically. However, he was asked about it in a FOX News interview where he dismissed the notion that he was talking about anything other than political power. Take a listen.</s>TRUMP: Nobody in that room thought anything other than what you just said. This is a political movement. This is a strong, powerful movement, the Second Amendment. You know, Hillary wants to take your guns away. She wants you to leave you unprotected in your home. This is a tremendous political movement. The NRA, as you know, endorsed me. They're terrific people, Wayne and Chris, and all of the people over there. And, by the way, they've already -- I just saw, they tweeted out basically, they agree 100 percent with what I said, and there could be no other interpretation. Even reporters have told me. I mean, give me a break.</s>MURRAY: Now, John, this is one of the key differences that we're seeing with how the campaign has dealt with this issue versus past controversies, they put out a statement quickly to clarify it. Donald Trump dealt with it in an interview, and he did not mention it on the stump. It's pretty clear the campaign wants to move beyond this and talk about some of the issues they were hoping to focus on this week.</s>BERMAN: All right. Sara Murray, thank you so much. Let's bring in the panel now. Clinton supporter and former New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, "New York Times" national political reporter, Alex Burns. Also with us, conservative Trump critic and Sirius XM radio host Margaret Hoover, Clinton supporter and former Bill Clinton senior White House adviser Richard Socarides and Trump surrogate John Jay LaValle. Corey Lewandowski, let me start with you. There could be no other interpretation and that's what we heard from Donald Trump. Well, for several hours after Donald Trump made those statements, including immediately after, there were a lot of other interpretations that a lot of other people watching had, no?</s>COREY LEWANDOWSKI, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Here's what I think. Again, you know, the media wants to talk about a narrative which isn't there. What he said was, let's make sure that the people who endorsed me which is the NRA and the people who support the second amendment are showing up on election day, because if you look at the context of what this was, it was in the context of appointing a U.S. Supreme Court justice, what he was talking about, and specifically talking about the right for people to keep and bear arms, hinging on who that next president is, who will appoint the Supreme Court justice and he has made the hallmark of his campaign outlining the type of justices who he would appoint ensuring the second amendment was held intact.</s>BERMAN: Christine Quinn, was that the only interpretation?</s>CHRISTINE QUINN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, that's not what he said, first of all. So, it's revisionist history, one. Two, he was talking about in the case, not about voting, about what would happen if and after Hillary was elected. But I think the big -- this comment today fits into a pattern with Donald Trump, of him repeatedly saying things that in the best of all generosity need vast explanation and tea leaf reading, and usually are inflammatory, divisive and reckless. And we see that happening over and over again. You can insert any number of things he said or done into this conversation tonight, and that really just reaffirms that Donald Trump does not have the temperament or the skill set to be president of the United States. We can't have a president who we have to explain to the world every day what he really meant was this. What he really meant was that. His comments are -- as Corey has said in the past. He's a straight shooter. He doesn't pull any punches. He decides what's said. He runs this campaign. Corey would know that better than anybody, and we see that in what he says over and over and over. And this is just another very bad example of that.</s>BERMAN: Corey?</s>LEWANDOWSKI: Look, John, I think if you look back at "The Huffington Post" story that was posted in 2008 about Hillary Clinton and -- let me read you a headline. Hillary Clinton's assassination gaffe that idea in January, bad idea now --</s>LEWANDOWSKI: She made the statement about Barack Obama getting out of the race and saying oh, no, RFK was not assassinated until after this nomination --</s>BERMAN: We have to remember that I'm old enough to remember that Hillary Clinton was severely --</s>QUINN: And immediately apologized.</s>LEWANDOWSKI: Where is that as part of the discussion? Where is the discussion point from eight years ago, Hillary Clinton said Barack Obama should -- she should not get out of this race because RFK was assassinated, while Barack Obama was still in this race?</s>QUINN: Can I say something? One, what Hillary Clinton said was putting the length of races into a context of anything can happen. Did she phrase that poorly? Absolutely. And what she did right afterward which I can bet dollars to donuts Donald Trump will never do tomorrow, will never do, was apologized for having misphrased it. And you know what? Admitting you made a mistake is a really good leadership quality, one that Donald Trump doesn't have because he thinks he's perfect because he kind of lives in a fantasy world.</s>BERMAN: I'm old enough to remember that statement in 2008. I'm also old enough to remember that Hillary Clinton received a lot of criticism for it, like Donald Trump is tonight. Alex, I'm also old enough to remember yesterday afternoon, when Donald Trump was giving an economics speech where the entire new focus of the campaign was going to be on the economy and people left behind. It's not.</s>ALEX BURNS, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, NEW YORK TIMES: Yes, remarkably, we're not still talking about the estate tax repeal 24 hours later, which is a subject that usually runs out voters. But I think we've seen this pattern replay itself a number of times where the Trump campaign begs him to stay on the prompter to give a speech that is consistent with the message that they believe can win the elections. He gives the speech, Republicans are briefly reassured and then something like this happens. And even if he is being misinterpreted or he misspoke or didn't intend to convey, or would allow people to convey what a lot of people believe he did convey, this is how candidates always get off message. This is a traditional problem the candidates have who improvised on the stump, and feel like they need to say things to rev up a crowd and that they can't say the same thing over and over again. It's just that with Donald Trump, everything in that area happens on steroid.</s>BREMAN: So, Margaret, Mike Pence was asked about this in an interview and Mike Pence says he does not think that Donald Trump was trying to incite violence. What's interesting about that is that a number two on the ticket is having to say that the number one on the ticket wasn't trying to incite violence. What kind of position is Mike Pence in and to what Christine, what Clinton was saying, what kind of position does this put Republicans in who are supporting Donald Trump to have to explain these comments regularly?</s>MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, it's incredibly painful for Republicans like Paul Ryan and others who are having to explain away the top of the ticket. But let's just be very clear, I mean, Corey said the hallmark of this campaign has been, I don't know, he said something very aspirational. I mean, the hallmark of this campaign has actually been rhetoric that was quite vitriolic. And so, you have to see this against the backdrop of coming out of the convention where chants on the convention floor were lock her up, lock her up, lock her up, people constantly refer to her as a murderer, as a criminal and that, you know, he even offered to pay, as we know, for the legal bills and people who roughed others up at his rallies. I mean, there has been a thematic reinforcement of violence as something that is acceptable from Donald Trump. So, let's call a spade a spade here. I mean, what he said all of those Second Amendment people, the guys behind him in the stands even immediately realized that this was a startling thing that he just said, and that it was essentially inciting violence, inciting an assassination attempt against his rival.</s>BERMAN: John Jay LaValle, you're nodding your head no.</s>JOHN JAY LAVALLE, TRUMP SURROGATE: No, no, this is ridiculous. This is a typical Democrat spin. I don't know why -- the media buys into it because you're selling advertising. I get it. I get the business.</s>HOOVER: For the record --</s>LAVALLE: Let me finish. Thank you.</s>HOOVER: I have been a Republican my entire life.</s>LAVALLE: Yes, I don't know how much so. When I finish --</s>HOOVER: Only 70 percent of Republicans are in favor of your guy --</s>LAVALLE: Donald Trump gives a speech, an incredible speech, talking about reform of our economy, the two most important issues to Americans are not what you're talking about tonight. It is our economy and the failing economy and the failed Democrat policies and ISIS, and terrorism, and what are we talking about tonight?</s>HOOVER: Why are we talking about it? Why?</s>LAVALLE: There is no reason to talk about it. We need to focus what the American people want to hear about.</s>HOOVER: Isn't it important what the candidate says?</s>LAVALLE: It's important that this economy needs to be reformed. It's important that here's 14 million families out of work today than there were seven years ago. It's important that there are $800 million trade deficit in this country.</s>HOOVER: I would love to talk about the issue and every issue you just mentioned and Republicans would like to talk about.</s>LAVALLE: Let me say this -- if you want to correct America and you want to correct a lot of our social like unrest that's out there, let's put Americans back to work, because when people have jobs and they can feed their family. You know, home ownership is at its lowest points in the 1950s, this is crazy what's going on in America, and we're talking about comment that's not even true.</s>HOOVER: Look, here's the thing, I'm with you on every single one of those issues and you and I would much rather talk about those issues than this, the problem is that your guy can't stay focused. He cannot have a good day subsequently and four or five other good days.</s>LAVALLE: He had a whole day talking about the economy.</s>BERMAN: Richard Socarides has been sitting here smiling and I'm not sure if that's because he's happy with this scope of the discussion. Jump in?</s>RICHARD SOCARIDES, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I would say that you have right here a great example of the unity in the Republican Party.</s>SOCARIDES: I mean --</s>BERMAN: You seem all broken up, Richard, that there are Republicans fighting.</s>SOCARIDES: The Republicans are fighting with each other because you have a candidate who once again today showed perhaps in the most dramatic way possible how he is temperamentally unfit to be president. And listen, the fact that were -- the thing that is just amazing to me now is that we're having this discussion. I mean, it is clear to everybody exactly what Donald Trump meant. I mean, he has this way of saying things d then taking them back and saying I was joking, or that's not really what I meant, or there could be -- he says something where there could be two meanings. But there should be no question in anybody's mind and not in John's nor Corey's exactly what he meant. He meant to say, he meant to suggest what he's obviously suggested to everybody else and then he takes it back. And this is, you know, a direct appeal to his supporters who may feel this way, and it is very dangerous. It is very dangerous in our politics, and I think we all have a responsibility as people who are involved in the political process, and as people who are in the media to call him out on this. I mean, what is totally unacceptable in our political discourse has become acceptable today.</s>SOCARIDES: I mean, this is the kind of discourse we have in countries controlled by dictators and countries that have phony elections. We're not having a phony election and we're having an election about the future of our country and he's making these crazy suggestions.</s>BERMAN: All right. Hang on, guys. I know you all want to jump in and comment on this. We will come back and discuss it much, much more. Coming up next, a conversation with former NSA and CIA director, Michael Hayden, about these remarks today and why he calls Donald Trump a threat to this country's national security. And then later, how did this happen? Hillary Clinton speaking about the worst mass shooting in the country's history and there sitting behind her in the red cap, the shooter's father. He actually says he was invited. What does the campaign say? Stay tuned.