Reuters Trumps, Dumps CNN Claim of Secret Service Warning To Donald Trump

HARTFORD, CT - APRIL 21: Democratic presidential candidate former Secretary of State Hill

The Reuters news service has poured cold water on CNN’s overheated claim that the Secret Service warned Donald Trump’s campaign that his gun rights rhetoric seemed to threaten the safety of Hillary Clinton.

Reuters reported that “a federal official on Wednesday said the U.S. Secret Service had not formally spoken with Republican Donald Trump’s presidential campaign regarding his suggestion a day earlier that gun rights activists could stop Democratic rival Hillary Clinton from curtailing their access to firearms.”

Trump gleefully broadcast Reuters’ refutation of the CNN article.

On Tuesday, Democrats, and many parts of the established media, claimed that Trump had casually threatened Hillary Clinton during an off-the-cuff campaign speech. This media-magnified claim — just like other claims, whether true or not — helps the Democrats’ push their narrative that Trump is too unstable to risk putting in the White House.

Here are Trump’s comments that Democrats used to create the media furor;

Hillary wants to abolish — essentially abolish the Second Amendment. By the way, if she gets to pick, if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know. But I tell you what, that will be a horrible day, if Hillary gets to put her judges in, right now we’re tied.

CNN kept the controversy going Wednesday evening with a claim that Secret Service officials warned Trump’s campaign about the remarks. In an updated version of the article published at 8.30 pm, CNN claimed:

A US Secret Service official confirms to CNN that the USSS has spoken to the Trump campaign regarding his Second Amendment comments.

“There has been more than one conversation” on the topic, the official told CNN.

However, CNN also undermined its own 8.30 pm article by saying that “it’s unclear at what level in the campaign structure the conversations occurred.”

The Reuters article was published 8.57 pm, or almost 30  minutes later. Headlined, “Official: No formal Secret Service discussions with Trump camp on remark,” the Reuters article said:

A federal official on Wednesday said the U.S. Secret Service had not formally spoken with Republican Donald Trump’s presidential campaign regarding his suggestion a day earlier that gun rights activists could stop Democratic rival Hillary Clinton from curtailing their access to firearms.

… Earlier CNN had reported that there had been multiple conversations between the campaign and the agency.

In the late afternoon, Trump had scoffed at the CNN’s claim of Secret Service concern. 

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