Donald Trump is backing away from his claim that President Barack Obama is considering an executive order to take away Americans’ guns, saying he’s hearing about it from “good sources” in the media.
Trump served up a fresh platter of red meat to a crowd of 5,600 supporters Monday night in the deep red part of South Carolina by suggesting that the President is planning to sign an executive order to “take your guns away.”
“You know, the President is thinking about signing an executive order where he wants to take your guns away. You hear about this? Not gonna happen. That won’t happen. But that’s a tough one, I think that’s a tough one for him to do,” Trump told the crowd. “There’s plenty of executive orders being signed, you know that. And we can’t let that go on.”
But when pressed by that claim by CNN’s Alisyn Camerota on “New Day” Tuesday, Trump backed away from the comment.
“No, no. I’ve heard that he wants to. And I heard it, I think, on your network. Somebody said that that’s what he’s thinking about. I didn’t say that he’s signing it. I said I think that would be a tough one to sign actually,” Trump said. “I would say it would be impossible. But nevertheless he was thinking about it. And I’ve heard it from numerous networks. And I’ve read it in the papers. You know. My source is the papers. So, you know, they’re pretty good sources.”
Obama has not announced any plans to sign an executive order that would take Americans’ guns away or further restrict access to guns. He has, however, called for Congress to pass legislation that would establish universal background checks and implement laws aimed at minimizing the number of mass shootings in the country.
About 5,600 people filled the 6,000-person capacity civic center in Anderson, South Carolina, to see Trump, according to the local fire marshal. The Trump campaign said more than 7,900 people attended the event.
Trump also appeared to reverse his stance on the war in Afghanistan on Monday night, telling the crowd that he was only opposed to the war in Iraq, not the war in Afghanistan — saying Afghanistan is where the U.S. should have focused its attention.
“Afghanistan is where we should have gone,” Trump said.
But just two weeks ago, Trump called the decision to send troops into Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks a “terrible mistake.”
Trump, who typically takes questions from reporters after his events, declined to do so on Monday.