WILMINGTON, N.C. -- Donald Trump said Tuesday that Second Amendment advocates might find a way to stop Hillary Clinton from rolling back gun rights if she's elected, setting off a political firestorm as Democrats accused him of encouraging violence against his Democratic opponent.

The GOP presidential nominee falsely claimed that Clinton wants to "essentially abolish the Second Amendment." She has said explicitly and repeatedly that she supports the Second Amendment right to own guns, though she does back some stricter gun control measures.

Trump also noted the power that Clinton, if she wins the presidency, would have to nominate justices to the Supreme Court.

"By the way, if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people -- maybe there is, I don't know," Trump told supporters at a rally in Wilmington, N.C. "But I'll tell you what. That will be a horrible day."

Clinton has made her support for gun rights a key piece of her stump speech. However, she supports reinstating a federal assault weapons ban, expanding background checks for firearm purchasers, and barring purchases by domestic abusers, among other steps.

At a rally later Tuesday in Fayetteville, N.C., Trump was careful with his words. He repeated his argument that Clinton poses a threat to gun rights but avoided any talk about advocates taking matters into their own hands. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, introducing Trump at the event, blamed the controversy on "disgusting" journalists.

Clinton's focus Tuesday was calling for emergency public health action on the Zika virus as she visited the Miami area that's dealing with the first U.S. outbreak of the illness. At a Miami health clinic, she urged Congress to cut short its summer recess and immediately pass funding for a Zika response.

Clinton said she was "very disappointed" that Congress left for recess without passing that legislation. She spoke after touring the Borinquen Medical Center, a health clinic close to the Wynwood neighborhood where 21 cases of Zika that aren't related to travel have been diagnosed.

"Everybody has a stake in this. And that's really why I'm here," Clinton said. "We don't want to wake up in a year and read more stories about babies like the little girl who just died in Houston."

So far, Trump has not addressed the issue in depth, though he told a Florida television station last week that Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, "really seems to have it under control in Florida."

Until this month, the only known cases of the virus in the United States were in people who had recently traveled to Latin America or the Caribbean. Federal officials last week warned pregnant women to avoid the Miami neighborhood and a square-mile area around it.

Lawmakers left Washington in mid-July for a seven-week recess without approving any of the $1.9 billion that President Barack Obama requested in February to try to develop a vaccine for the virus and control the mosquitoes that carry it.

Obama, Clinton and Democrats blame Republicans for politicizing the legislation by adding a provision to a $1.1 billion take-it-or-leave-it measure that would have blocked Planned Parenthood clinics in Puerto Rico from receiving money.

Republicans, in turn, say the administration has not spent money that has already been provided, and that it's the Democrats who are playing politics in an election year.

In Florida, leaders from both parties want Congress to return and allocate more dollars for the Zika fight. Among those leaders are U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and Scott.

Clinton also used her time in south Florida to show her support for former Democratic National Committee Chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, with a visit to the congressman's campaign office.

Wasserman Schultz resigned her DNC role after leaked emails showed an apparent lack of neutrality among some party officials during the Democratic primary race between Clinton and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Wasserman Schultz is facing a challenger in the Aug. 30 primary.

Earlier, news that the father of the gunman in the Orlando, Fla., nightclub mass killings in June was spotted at a Monday night Clinton rally in Kissimmee, Fla., set off an uproar on social media. Seddique Mateen was positioned behind Clinton as she spoke.

Asked by NBC TV affiliate WPTV whether the Clinton campaign knew he would attend the rally, Mateen said, "It's a democratic party, so everyone can join."

"The rally was a 3,000-person, open-door event for the public," the campaign said in an emailed statement Tuesday. "This individual wasn't invited as a guest, and the campaign was unaware of his attendance until after the event."

At a rally in Pittsburgh on Tuesday evening, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, Trump's running mate, accused the news media of ignoring Mateen's appearance at the Clinton event.

"It feels like every single day the national press latches onto some other issue about my running mate, just each and every day of the week," Pence said. "But you know what they're not talking about? Anything having to do with Hillary Clinton."

He continued: "The father of the very radical Islamic terrorist who murdered 49 Americans attended the rally, was on television through most of the rally sitting behind Hillary Clinton, and he said he was there because he supports Hillary Clinton because she's, quote, good on national security. Now the media's not talking about that, I expect, because Hillary Clinton's been a disaster on national security."

Early in her remarks on Monday, Clinton touched on the Orlando shooting, during which Mateen's son, Omar Mateen, killed 49 people at Pulse, a gay nightclub. Omar Mateen was killed in a standoff with the police.

"I know how many people, loved ones and friends, are still grieving," Clinton said of the victims' families. "And I want them to know that we will be with you."

Second Amendment

Trump's campaign sought to quell the controversy over his Second Amendment remarks with a statement that blamed the "dishonest media" for misinterpretation. And Pence said Trump was talking about the clear election choice for pro-gun voters, not encouraging violence against Clinton.

"Of course not," Pence said in an interview with NBC Philadelphia. "Donald Trump is urging people around this country to act consistent with their convictions in the course of this election."

"It's called the power of unification -- Second Amendment people have amazing spirit and are tremendously unified, which gives them great political power," said Jason Miller, Trump's senior communications adviser. "And this year, they will be voting in record numbers, and it won't be for Hillary Clinton, it will be for Donald Trump."

Trump's reaction later as the controversy grew was: "Give me a break."

Interviewed by Fox News' Sean Hannity, he said everyone in his audience knew he was referring to the power of voters, and "there can be no other interpretation."

In fact, some supporters at his rally, including one seated behind Trump on camera, reacted with surprise to his remark, suggesting that they realized it could be taken another way.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, who was celebrating a primary victory in Wisconsin Tuesday night, said: "It sounds like just a joke gone bad. I hope they clear this up very quickly. You never joke about something like that."

From Trump's critics, the reaction was unforgiving.

Tim Kaine, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, said "of course" the Republicans were trying to explain away Trump's comments, but "I think it was just revealing ... and I don't find the attempt to roll it back persuasive at all."

Clinton's campaign manager, Robby Mook, called the comments "dangerous." Priorities USA, a super political action committee supporting Clinton, said Trump had "suggested that someone shoot Hillary Clinton." Across the country, Democratic House and Senate candidates piled on, working to tie Trump's comments to their GOP opponents.

The GOP candidate's distortion of Clinton's position on the Second Amendment and his comments Tuesday prove "how dangerous Trump really is," said Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

"What Donald Trump said today is repulsive, literally using the Second Amendment as cover to encourage people to kill someone with whom they disagree," said Gross, whose group is named for James Brady, a White House press secretary wounded in the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, tweeted: "realDonaldTrump makes death threats because he's a pathetic coward who can't handle the fact that he's losing to a girl."

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat and a leading advocate for stronger gun safety laws, called Trump's comments "disgusting and embarrassing and sad."

"This isn't play," Murphy wrote on Twitter. "Unstable people with powerful guns and an unhinged hatred for Hillary are listening to you, realDonaldTrump."

The National Rifle Association, the gun lobby that has endorsed Trump, rose to his defense. The group wrote on Twitter that "there's nothing we can do" if Clinton is elected. It urged voters to defeat her in November.

Trump's comments came a few weeks after one of his campaign advisers said "Hillary Clinton should be put in the firing line and shot for treason."

The U.S. Secret Service is investigating those remarks, made last month by Al Baldasaro, a New Hampshire state lawmaker and an adviser to Trump on veterans issues. Trump spokesman Hope Hicks said then that neither Trump nor his campaign agree with Baldasaro's comments.

The Secret Service, responsible for the protection of Clinton and Trump, said it was aware of what Trump had said but declined to say whether it planned to investigate.

Economic plan

Clinton's campaign moved to build on what they see as missteps by Trump, expanding her presidential battleground map to include the traditionally Republican states of Georgia and Arizona.

Party officials in Arizona and Georgia say Clinton campaign lieutenants told them Monday that the Democratic presidential nominee would start spending money on staffing in the two states, which combine for 27 electoral votes, a 10th of the total needed to win the presidency.

Another person with knowledge of the campaign's plans said the initial investment will be six figures. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak publicly about campaign strategy.

The move comes amid a national shift in Clinton's favor since the July party conventions. Polls suggest that Clinton has widened her national lead over Trump and positioned herself to compete even in some traditionally GOP-leaning states.

Rebecca DeHart, the Georgia Democratic Party's executive director who spoke with Clinton campaign leaders, said details of the new spending are still being worked out. She said the money would expand the existing party field operation that already includes eight offices and dozens of employees.

"This is something we've been building toward for quite some time," she said.

Arizona's Democratic Party hopes to double the number of field organizers it has on staff with Clinton's infusion of cash, according to state party Chairman Alexis Tameron.

"A little money can go a long way," Tameron said.

Also on Monday, Clinton's campaign chairman announced that Clinton would take part in all three TV debates that the Commission on Presidential Debates is organizing and called out Trump's appearance of "trying to avoid debates."

Trump tried to set that straight in an interview with Time on Tuesday, saying he would debate but he had conditions.

"I will absolutely do three debates," Trump told Time in a phone interview. "I want to debate very badly. But I have to see the conditions."

Trump said he had negotiated terms during primary debates and he planned to do the same in the general election.

Negotiations on the details of presidential debates are common but are typically done behind the scenes. An official with the Commission on Presidential Debates told Time those "fine points," such as set design or height requirements, can be negotiated, but the format as announced was not negotiable.

Information for this article was contributed by Josh Lederman, Catherine Lucey, Lisa Lerer, Jonathan Lemire, Christopher S. Rugaber, Bill Barrow, Bob Christie and Josh Boak of The Associated Press; by Matt Flegenheimer and Ashley Parker of The New York Times; by Ben Brody of Bloomberg News; and by Kate Irby of Tribune News Service.

A Section on 08/10/2016