Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton "showed a great deal of contempt for gun owners in the United States" during Tuesday's debate — and she can expect them to turn out and vote against her in droves, Americans for Tax Reform founder Grover Norquist told
Newsmax TV on Wednesday.
With 12.8 million Americans with concealed-carry permits, "she has no idea how many people she's insulted," Norquist told "The Hard Line" host Ed Berliner. "She told them: 'I don't trust you. I don't like you. I have contempt for you in your decisions.'
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"It goes back to 1993, when she said in congressional testimony that she wanted to have a 25 percent — not $25 — 25 percent tax on gun sales in America in order to make it more difficult for people to buy guns to protect themselves.
"So, she wants to tax guns," he added. "She insults gun owners. She has no idea there are 5 million members of the National Rifle Association, 12.8 million concealed carry permit owners — and tens of millions of hunters."
And these gun owners are going to vote against the former first lady next year.
"When the gun issue is put forward and people are threatened, then gun owners vote in defense of the Second Amendment," Norquist told Berliner. "Nobody's threatening them.
"They might vote on any number of other issues, but because everyone knows that if Hillary Clinton is president, she will attack and destroy what's left of the Second Amendment's protections — and she will tax your right to have a gun, she'll stop the concealed-carry movement.
"All gun owners, all conceal-carry permit owners, all hunters, all NRA members know what's at stake if Hillary Clinton is president."
Otherwise, Norquist told Berliner that the Democrats' mantra during the debate was "spend, tax, spend, tax, repeat."
"Every time they talked about spending, they wanted more of it," he said. "Every time they talked about taxes, they wanted higher.
"So, it was one special-interest feeding frenzy after another," he said. "To the unions, everything they want, they're going to get. Everything the trial lawyers want, they're going to get. Everything that government-employee unions want, they're going to get.
"There's one card in the Democratic Party's Rolodex," Norquist later added, "and it says 'raise taxes.'"
Norquist is the author of the recent book,
"End the IRS Before It Ends Us."
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