From the Feburary 17 edition of MSNBC's Donald Trump Town Hall:
Joe Scarborough Asks Donald Trump To Make Upholding The Second Amendment “Litmus Test In Supreme Court Nominees”
Donald Trump: “I Give That Commitment Right Now, Absolutely”
Written by Media Matters Staff
Published
JOE SCARBOROUGH (HOST): Ted Cruz says we can't count on Donald Trump in the future, especially in picking Supreme Court justices, if he's changed in the past. So how do you convince a Republican like me that if you were nominated, you're not going to nominate the type of Supreme Court justice that always seems to flip?
DONALD TRUMP: Okay. So if you look at me as a conservative, okay, and I'm not sure that that's necessarily the most important word, but I say I'm a common sense conservative, I'm the most conservative on the border. Nobody tougher than me on the border. In fact Sheriff Joe [Arpaio] just endorsed me from Arizona, and when he endorses you, you're pretty conservative, you're pretty good on the border. I think I'm the strongest on the military, most conservative on the military. Strongest on the military. The best with the vets. I have more veteran support than anybody else by far. We're going to get rid of Common Core. I'm very conservative on that issue. Common core is going, we're going to have local education. It's going to be much better, much less expensive. On the Second Amendment, I am absolutely the strongest in the group --
SCARBOROUGH: So, let me stop you there. The Second Amendment, very important in this state. Heller, the decision that the Supreme Court passed that -- or decided on, actually found out that the Second Amendment -- ruled that the Second Amendment meant what a lot of people have long believed that it meant, that Americans have a right to keep and bear arms.
TRUMP: Right.
SCARBOROUGH: Will you make upholding the Heller decision a litmus test in Supreme Court nominees that you send?
TRUMP: Yes, I would. And I talk about it all the time.
SCARBOROUGH: So you won't nominate somebody to the Supreme Court unless they agree with Scalia on the Heller decision.
TRUMP: Correct.
SCARBOROUGH: That the Second Amendment means Americans have the right to bear arms.
TRUMP: Correct. I give that commitment right now, absolutely. I'm very strong, I'm a member of the NRA. My sons, Don and Eric, are members of the NRA for a long time. They're hunters, they're great members of the NRA. You know, if in -- if you take California, if in California we had somebody having guns on the other side where you had the two radicalized people, and if we had guns on the other side, bullets coming the other way, you wouldn't have had the 14 people killed. I mean, the best example is not this country, Paris has the toughest gun laws in the world they say. France has the toughest gun laws as a country they say. If you take France and all the bad guys have the guns, nobody had guns in the room, they sent into the various rooms of people, 130 people killed, it was like come on over here, boom. Come on over here, boom. If people on the other side had guns, Joe, it wouldn't have been that way. And you know, people really seriously wounded. You're going to lose many more people in Paris. But, you look at it, if they had guns on the other side with the bullets flying the other way, and I have this argument with people all the time from New York -- because a lot of New York, they say “get rid of the guns,” the fact is, they can't argue, they can't beat me in the argument.
Previously:
Media Critic: MSNBC's Joe Scarborough's “Unbelievable” Relationship With Donald Trump Is “Inappropriate”
Joe Scarborough Slams Fox News' Response To Donald Trump Dropping Out Of Debate
Joe Scarborough Calls Trump's Debunked 9/11 Comments Merely An “Exaggerat[ion],” Accuses The Media Of “Overreacting”