Trump Adviser Clarifies: Clinton Should Be Executed, Not Assassinated

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump listens at ;eft as Al Baldasaro, a New Hampshire state representative, speaks during a news conference in New York, Tuesday, May 31, 2016. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
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Trump adviser Al Baldasaro clarified for the record Tuesday that he doesn’t think Hillary Clinton should be assassinated, but rather thinks she should be shot by firing squad for “treason.”

Baldasaro, who co-chairs Trump’s veteran coalition, told MassLive.com Tuesday that he believes the media misinterpreted his comments.

“The liberal media took what I said and went against the law and the Constitution and ran with it, and they said that I wanted her assassinated, which I never did,” Baldasaro told The Republican/MassLive.com. “I said I spoke as a veteran, and she should be shot in a firing squad for treason.”

This is not the first, nor even the second time Baldasaro has made comments about how he believes Clinton should be killed.

He first broached the subject of Clinton’s death by firing squad in July. The Secret Service investigated the matter, and even Trump distanced himself from the comment, with his spokesman Hope Hicks telling WMUR in New Hampshire that Trump did not agree with the sentiment. Baldasaro is still affiliated with the campaign, however, and Trump himself suggested at a recent rally that his Second Amendment supporters could do something to stop Clinton from being elected. When asked if Trump had spoken directly with him about the comment. Baldasaro said Trump had, but that “he might not agree on the way I said it, but I said it as a veteran.”

“What you in the liberal media consider rhetoric, I consider freedom of speech,” Baldasaro told MassLive.

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