.jpg?w=480&auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=max)
WASHINGTON: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is using a language that is inciting violence, Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine alleged today.
"He is using language that is an incitement to violence or an encouragement of violence or at least being kind of cavalier and reckless about violence and that has no place in any election, especially an election to be president, commander in chief of this country," Kaine told Fox News.
The latest of these he said is Trump's remarks to disarm the Secret Service.
Trump alleged during an election rally late this week that his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton wants to take away the Second Amendment that gives Americans the right to bear arms.
"I do believe that this was inciting violence. I was stunned when I saw it, although he has done it before," Kaine said in response to a question.
"Hillary Clinton and I believe in the Second Amendment, we support the Second Amendment, we do support gun safety rules consistent with the Second Amendment. We're not taking people's guns away. But second, this notion that he has done before if Hillary gets elected then maybe Second Amendment people will have to take care of the situation, or his comment Friday night, or his statements in rallies. You know, I'd like to punch the guy in the face," Kaine said.
"When you look at a series of these comments that he is making, I do believe it is an incitement or at a minimum an expression of indifference as to whether violence would occur.
And this is a pattern that has been repeated over and over again and I think it doesn't belong in any race, much less a race to be president of this country," Kaine said.
"Whether he intended that or not, the message sounds a lot like a threat or encouraging violence," he said.
Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence described the allegations as nonsense.
"That's absolute nonsense. His comment was that if she didn't have all that security she would change her attitude about the right to keep and bear arms. I'll bet that's probably true," Pence asserted.
"The truth of the matter is, it really is remarkable to me, and I just joined this campaign a couple of months ago. But people in the national media spend more time talking about what Donald Trump said in the last day than they do talking about what the Clintons have been up to for the last 30 years," he said.
"The avalanche of dishonesty flowing out of the Clinton Foundation for years as secretary of state and the fact that her campaign couldn't even be honest about her own health situation, I mean, we wish her well, we're glad to see her back on the campaign trail. But there's just been decades of dishonesty flowing out from the Clintons," Pence said.