WILMINGTON, N.C. – Republican
presidential nominee Donald Trump called for voter ID laws in speeches before crowds in Wilmington and Fayetteville. In the two eastern N.C. cities Trump told cheering crowds that voter ID laws are needed to prevent voter fraud and keep people from voting multiple times.N.C. Governor Pat McCrory was on hand for the Wilmington visit, telling supporters filling Trask Auditorium at UNC Wilmington that on
Wednesday he will petition U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts
for a stay on the ruling that rolled back the state’s Voter Identification and
Verification Act. He criticized his gubernatorial opponent, Attorney
General Roy Cooper, saying that Cooper isn’t doing his job by for refusing to
defend the law in court. Earlier this month he called on Cooper to also
refuse his state salary.McCrory introduced a surprise speaker, Rudy Giuliani. The N.Y.
mayor praised McCrory and the revived economy in North Carolina.”He’s a good friend, a good governor and you are lucky to
have him,” Giuliani said of McCrory. “In November, when you vote for
Donald Trump, re-elect Pat McCrory.”Giuliani then turned his attention to Hillary Clinton, eliciting
boos from the eastern North Carolina crowd at the mention of the Democratic
nominee.”Donald Trump is pro-military, pro-police, and Hillary
Clinton is just the opposite,” Giuliani said. “Did you know she
excluded uniformed police officers from the floor of the Democratic National
Convention? That’s right, she was embarrassed to have uniformed officers on the
floor of the DNC. This woman is anti-military, anti-police, and anti-growth
economy.”The N.C. stops focused on Donald Trump’s pledge to make
rebuilding the military and increasing economic growth priorities of his
administration.However, Trump’s policy message was largely lost in media reports amid controversy about
a comment that he made regarding Hillary Clinton’s potential judicial
appointees. The comment suggested that gun rights activists could act to stop Democratic rival Hillary
Clinton from nominating liberal U.S. Supreme Court justices.”If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do folks,
“Trump said at a rally. “Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there
is, I don’t know,” he continued.However some media and Clinton’s campaign said that he was endorsing an attack on Clinton.”A person seeking to be the president of the United States
should not suggest violence in any way,” the Clinton campaign said.When asked to clarify what Trump meant, his campaign said he was
referring to getting supporters of the Second Amendment to rally votes for
Trump in the election.”It’s called the power of unification – 2nd Amendment
people have amazing spirit and are tremendously unified, which gives them great
political power,” the Trump campaign said in its statement.Immediately after Trump made his comment, many on social media
accused him of effectively calling for Clinton’s assassination. In just three hours,
2nd amendment became the top trending topic on Twitter, with more than 60,000
posts mentioning the term.Giuliani also traveled to Fayetteville with Trump where the two visited Allegra Print and Imaging to meet with the business owners, Bruce and Cathy Sykes. The Sykes have run the small business since 1986. Later at Crown Coliseum, Giuliani took
the stage accusing the news media of taking the remark out of context to help
Clinton get elected.”What he meant by that was you have the power to vote
against her,” Giuliani said to cheers. “You have the power to speak
against her. You know why? Because you’re Americans.””It proves that most of the press is in the tank for
Hillary Clinton,” he added. “They are doing everything they can to
destroy Donald Trump.”The U.S. Secret Service, which provides security details for
both Trump and Clinton and rarely comments on political matters, when asked for
a response on Trump, said: “The Secret Service is aware of the
comment.”Trump later told Fox News Channel’s “Hannity” program
that “nobody in that room” thought he meant anything other than to
rally support against Clinton.”This is a strong powerful movement, the Second
Amendment,” Trump said. “Hillary wants to take your guns away. She
wants to leave you unprotected in your home. This is a tremendous political
movement.”U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a liberal firebrand, tweeted that the Republican nominee “makes death threats
because he’s a pathetic coward who can’t handle the fact that he’s losing to a
girl.”Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway fought back in a tweet of
her own, calling Warren a “disgrace.”Trump’s vice presidential running mate, Mike Pence, asked if he
believed Trump was inciting violence toward Clinton, told NBC’s Philadelphia
affiliate: “Of course not. No.” Pence said the comment was referring to the importance of appointing justices who will uphold the U.S. Constitution.The media attention on his comment is the latest in multiple
that have kept Trump at the top of Twitter and headlines while the campaign
spends no money on television advertising. So far the Trump campaign hasn’t
spent anything on TV ads compared to Clinton’s $52 million. If money laid out
by outside groups supporting the candidates, the Clinton camp has spent $91
million on ads versus $8 million by Trump and his supporters, NBC News said.A study by media analytics firm mediaQuant placing monetary
values on social media mentions estimates Trump is benefiting from about $2
billion in free media so far. That figure is expected to rise to $5 billion by
the Nov. 8 election.Reuters News Service contributed to this report.
In eastern NC, Trump calls for Voter ID, rebuilding military and economic growth
