WASHINGTON, D.C. Aug 10 (DPI) – Donald Trump’s latest rhetorical game-playing – telling a crowd that “Second Amendment people” can stop Hillary Clinton from appointing liberal judges and restricting gun rights – is more likely to backfire against him, as more and more moderate and independent voters recognize he is merely inciting violence.

His remarks at a campaign stop in Wilmington, N.C., yesterday, as quoted in The New York Times, suggested as much:

“If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people — maybe there is, I don’t know.”

With such erratic behavior there’s an increasing chance that Trump may become the victim of his own rhetoric – that the Republican organization may find a procedural way to have him removed as a candidate, in days or weeks.

Nearly 4,000 reader comments largely condemned Trump for his latest inflammatory remarks – even though Trump said he didn’t mean his words to be construed to incite violence. But the most popular reader comments on NYTimes.com picked up on a pattern:

I’ve noticed that this is a recurring rhetorical technique employed by Trump: say something that at first blush seems incendiary on its face, followed immediately by pulling his punch with a disingenuous “I don’t know”–upon which the dog-whistle crowd goes nuts. Then, after the media picks it up, the campaign offers up an “alternative” explanation for the remarks that is the picture of innocence, but has little to nothing to do with what he implied or his audience actually heard.

There appear to be only 2 ways to take this: he is advocating assassination of Clinton or he is advocating armed resistance. I am sure that he will say that he was just joking and that the “lying” media is making too big a deal of this, but a presidential candidate even joking about assassinating his opponent or advocating armed resistance is a big deal.

Clearly Mr. Trump has no boundaries. I saw him make these comments, and I gasped in disbelief. I cannot believe that any American should continue to support someone so irresponsible.
We are all Americans. I do not care how passionately I disagree with you; I do not wish that another American should be harmed. We are all citizens of one country. Vigorous debate is in our DNA. But no one, no one, should ever explicitly say or vaguely imply that a fellow American should be harmed because they have a different position on a political issue than they do.
I hope that the Republican party will take the long overdue step of invalidating this man’s nomination. Considering his lengthy record of repugnant statements and positions, Republicans should push Mr. Trump to resign immediately from the political process.

Even if meant as a joke, this comment by Trump is absolutely reprehensible, and unfortunately part and parcel of the implied threat of violence that often seems to be present at Trump rallies. Every Republican congressman that has endorsed Trump should be asked if this, finally, is the comment that will convince them to withdraw their support. Trump himself should be challenged in subsequent interviews to apologize for this remark, but such a request is likely pointless given his own lack of a moral compass.