Dan Rather Rips Trump Online In Facebook Rant

Former CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather took to Facebook and absolutely ripped into Donald Trump after the controversial presidential candidate made a comment about how Second Amendment citizens can stop Hillary Clinton from becoming president of the United States. In a lengthy post on his Facebook account, the iconic news anchor stated how Trump’s comments “were a new low and unprecedented in the history of American presidential politics.”

He also pondered whether or not the Secret Service would investigate the matter if it were an ordinary citizen who made such snide comments about a presidential candidate. The Secret Service would later mention through its official Twitter account about how they were aware of the comments that Trump had made earlier in the day.

The Secret Service is aware of the comments made earlier this afternoon.

— U.S. Secret Service (@SecretService) August 9, 2016

“This is no longer about policy, civility, decency, or even temperament. This is a direct threat of violence against a political rival,” Rather continued in his rant.

Trump’s camp later issued a statement saying that what Trump meant to say was about people who supported the Second Amendment would unite as one and vote together.

“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,” said Trump’s senior communications adviser Jason Miller in the statement.

When Trump was asked about his comments later on during a local television interview, he did not respond directly to the controversy itself but instead spoke about how people who supported the Second Amendment possessed tremendous power because of how united they all are. Mike Pence, Trump’s running mate, would echo the campaign’s interpretation of Trump’s comments by saying that he was not inferring violence of any kind.

Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City who introduced Trump at a rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina, said that Trump was only implying that supporters of gun rights that they all have the power to not vote for Hillary Clinton. He also added that Clinton’s camp simply spun Trump’s comments out of context and made it look like he was urging somebody to kill her and that the media simply went along with it.

Trump made the comments while he was speaking at a rally that took place in Wilmington, North Carolina, where he warned that Clinton was opposed to the Second Amendment. Trump claimed that if she were to win the elections, she would appoint Supreme Court justices who would block gun rights. Following the passing of Justice Antonin Scilla, there is currently an opening, but President Obama’s nominee did not receive any votes from the Republicans, who have simply refused to do so.

Rather explained that nothing could justify Trump’s comments. His lengthy rant on Facebook was somewhat parallel to the moment when Edward R. Murrow, a broadcaster for CBS, once called out Sen. Joe McCarthy after the latter targeted innocent civilians under the pretense that they were all communists who were in support of Soviet Russia.

These comments are just the latest in a sea of controversy that has surrounded Trump ever since he announced his intention to run for president. He has caused so much controversy that even the New York Daily News is calling for his presidential campaign to stop. With the presidential elections less than two months away, it would interesting to see how Trump’s campaign is going to fare moving forward following yet another ill-conceived comment from him.

[Photo by Kirk Irwin/Getty Images]