Who Is Patti Davis? Trump Criticized By Reagan's Daughter For Second Amendment Threat: 'Words Matter'

The daughter of Ronald Reagan, the former Republican president beloved by the party, is joining the ranks of anti-Trump conservatives. Patti Davis, in a Facebook post, told the story of how her father was once shot during an attempted assassination attempt in 1981.

Davis’ message to Trump, who has been criticized recently for comments that some said suggested assassinating Hillary Clinton would be a potentially valid response to her presidency: Words matter and violence isn’t a joke.

“Your glib and horrifying comment about ‘Second Amendment people’ was heard around the world. It was heard by sane and decent people who shudder at your fondness for verbal violence,” Davis wrote. “It was heard by your supporters, many of whom gleefully and angrily yell, ‘Lock her up!’ at your rallies.”

In the note, Davis said that her father’s would-be murderer was inspired by a movie. That shooter, John Hinckley, Jr., thought that if he killed the president then an actress he admired would notice him, Davis said.

Your comment “was heard by the person sitting alone in a room, locked in his own dark fantasies, who sees unbridled violence as a way to make his mark in the world, and is just looking for ideas,” she wrote. “Yes, Mr. Trump, words matter. But then you know that, which makes this all even more horrifying.”

Trump’s comments earlier this week in North Carolina were quickly condemned from all corners of public life: the media, Democratic politicians and even Republicans. Some of Trump’s most ardent supporters in Congress even refused to defend the presidential nominee for his statements.

The Trump campaign, for its part, quickly sent out a statement clarifying the candidate’s comments. The billionaire, it said, had simply meant that supporters of the Second Amendment could organize in legal opposition to Clinton during the election. The Trump campaign claimed that he did not mean to insinuate that an armed uprising would be an appropriate response to a Clinton presidency.