Donald Trump gave a speech today in New Hampshire which was originally intended to spread some rumors about Hillary Clinton as related to him by a former Secret Service agent, who I'm sure had no axe to grind.
It was -- bar none -- the most fascistic speech he's given to date. He began by declaring that the shooter was born in Afghanistan and was here in the United States only because his parents were permitted to come here. (The shooter was born in New York City in 1986)
"Hillary Clinton says the solution is to ban guns," Trump sneered. "They tried that in France, which has among the toughest gun laws in the world, and 130 were brutally murdered by Islamic terrorists in cold blood."
Next, cue the usual right-wing tropes. "Her plan is to disarm law-abiding Americans, abolishing the 2nd amendment, and leaving only the bad guys and terrorists with guns. She wants to take away Americans’ guns, then admit the very people who want to slaughter us," he lied.
Trump vowed to meet "with the NRA...to discuss how to ensure Americans have the means to protect themselves in this age of terror."
After giving this speech, Trump did a phoner with CNN where he expressed astonishment that the shooter owned his AR-15 legally and had a permit to buy it. How could he possibly have gotten that gun, Trump marveled?
Unfortunately, no one on that CNN broadcast thought to point him to the recent vote in our Senate where Republicans killed the very reasonable bill preventing people on the terrorist watch list from purchasing guns. Not that it would have caught this guy in the net, since he was dropped from the watch list after the FBI determined he was essentially a hanger-on to different factions of extremism.
The entire transcript of his speech is here.