Trump like a loose cannon: Pundit

Press TV has conducted an interview with Scott Rickard, a former American intelligence linguist from Orlando, about controversial comments made by US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who called for action against his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton over her gun control policy.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: What do you make of Trump’s comments about the Second Amendment?

Rickard: Well, obviously nobody is talking about abolishing the rights of people having arms in the United States as much as, I will never defend Hillary Clinton, I’m defending the fact that that’s not going to happen. This is a country that obviously is very pro-gun. The gun lobby is absolutely very powerful. There’s five million members extremely active. They’re extremely right-wing. They have tremendous support for elections in the congressional and the senatorial side.

The comments that he made, you can take it two ways: one way you could just be crassly making a joke that obviously is nothing new to Trump. And then, potentially he could actually be talking about the power of the lobby. The lobby associated with the NRA. Now that being said when it comes to choosing judges and the influence that lobbies have, they may be able to influence one or two senators that will be on the committee that will be vetting the candidates for the next president.

But at the end of the day, most of what they call influential groups or groups that are lobbying for those kinds of interest aren’t as successful when it comes to appointing judicial Supreme Court justices. That being said, you do have times when these influence groups had some impact. But at the end of the day, I see these comments as very unuseful, certainly not inciting any kind of, what I would say, intellectual commentary. And the reaction by the left has been obviously attacking them looking for yet another underbelly when in fact both campaigns are representing very dirty individuals who have absolutely no place in being in this American election.

Press TV: As you just pointed out, Trumps comments can be taken two different ways. However, if you go with the cross argument over there, Trump being Trump for example, the worry though is that his supporters may not view it that way. There is that inherent danger in the unfiltered comments that come out of his mouth.

Rickard: Well, certainly I mean obviously when you’re in a point of leadership in any organization whether it be political or business or any type of ethnics when you’re talking a group of people and you’re making jokes of inciting or insinuating something, someone might take you seriously or there might be somebody in the organization that may not be quite as stable as they need to be and they may act on things.

So, obviously you want to be as a meter of any organization as poised, but we all make mistakes, we all make dumb jokes at work, nobody is perfect and to hold somebody accountable for this, on one or two occasions, is not necessary. But if somebody continues to have this kind of track record unfortunately it becomes what we would call it at work a loose cannon. 

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