The Republican incumbent in Colorado’s most competitive congressional race scolded Donald Trump for remarks the GOP presidential nominee made Tuesday about the Second Amendment and its supporters, although nearly every other prominent Republican in the state kept quiet as the controversy raged on.

As politicians, pundits and law enforcement officials nationwide argued over whether Trump had encouraged violence against his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, in off-the-cuff remarks at a campaign rally, U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, an Aurora Republican, denounced Trump’s remarks in a statement on Wednesday

“Once again, Donald Trump has made a reckless and irresponsible statement – it’s become a habit for him, and it has to stop,” Coffman told The Colorado Statesman.

A spokesman for Coffman’s Democratic challenger, state Sen. Morgan Carroll, however, tore into Coffman for distancing himself from Trump without fully rejecting his party’s nominee.

At the same time, elected Republicans, candidates and party officials in Colorado declined to wade into the clash over Trump’s remarks, with most simply ignoring inquiries from The Statesman entirely.

Speaking at a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, Trump said Clinton “wants to abolish – essentially abolish the Second Amendment,” repeating a claim the Clinton campaign and fact-checkers have said isn’t true.

“By the way,” a smiling Trump continued, “and if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know. But I’ll tell you what, that will be a horrible day.”

Almost immediately, Clinton supporters expressed outrage, charging that Trump was hinting that “the Second Amendment people” might consider assassination as a solution to their political disagreements with Clinton.

“This is simple – what Trump is saying is dangerous,” said Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook in a statement. “A person seeking to be President of the United States should not suggest violence in any way.”

A Trump spokesman claimed instead that the candidate was talking about “the power of unification” and the “great political power” that could be wielded by supporters of the Second Amendment. “[T]his year, they will be voting in record numbers, and it won’t be for Hillary Clinton, it will be for Donald Trump,” said the campaign’s senior communications advisor Jason Miller in a statement.

“If someone else had said that said outside the hall, he’d be in the back of a police wagon now with the Secret Service questioning him,” retired Gen. Michael Hayden, the former head of the CIA, told CNN. (Hayden is among dozens of national security officials with experience in Republican administrations who have said they won’t be voting for Trump in November.)

“You get to a certain point in this business, you’re not just responsible for what you say,” Hayden added. “You are responsible for what people hear.”

In Colorado, Republican congressional candidate George Athanasopoulos, who is challenging U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter in the 7th Congressional District, disagreed with Hayden’s characterization of Trump’s remarks.

In a conversation Tuesday night with The Statesman on Twitter, Athanasopoulos suggested that questions about Trump’s temperament and judgment were more fittingly turned on Clinton.

“… [L]et’s talk about #Libya and the Arab Spring. Or how about the Russian reset?” he tweeted, adding, “If we’re going to talk character, how about the email server and the repeated, flagrant lies?”

He also wrote, “I didn’t hear anything even remotely resembling a threat. This is a non-issue.”

Although Coffman came to the opposite conclusion, that didn’t win him any points with his challenger.

Drew Godinich, Carroll’s spokesman, said in a statement released just hours after Trump’s remarks were first reported that the message was “beyond words,” and then preemptively pilloried Coffman.

“But before Mike Coffman takes to the airwaves to say that he once again ‘strongly condemns’ these comments,” Godinich said, referencing a recent Coffman TV ad, “before he employs political double-speak to pretend he is still weighing his options, let’s all think about what that means: a man who has suggested a violent attack against his opponent is still likely to earn Coffman’s vote. Every Democrat, Independent, and Republican should unequivocally denounce Donald Trump’s campaign and work to ensure he is never commander-in-chief.”

Coffman made news last week for being the first Republican member of Congress to go after Trump in a TV ad – “Honestly, I don’t care for him much,” he says in the 30-second video, adding that he’ll stand up to either Trump or Clinton, whichever is elected president – but has left open the possibility that he’ll vote for him in the fall.

A campaign spokeswoman said that Coffman has talked with former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, the vice presidential nominee on the Libertarian ticket, and has so far only ruled out voting for Clinton.

Other Colorado Republicans, however, didn’t go so far as Coffman or Athanasopoulos, at least not publicly.

A spokesman for the Colorado Republican Committee said that neither the party nor GOP chairman Steve House had anything to say.

A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, a Republican who has yet to endorse Trump, didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Campaign spokesmen for the other Republicans in the state’s congressional delegation – U.S. Reps. Doug Lamborn, Scott Tipton and Ken Buck – didn’t respond to requests for comment, either.

A spokeswoman for Republican U.S. Senate nominee Darryl Glenn told The Statesman that the candidate, who has been among Trump’s most high-profile boosters in Colorado, wouldn’t be commenting on the latest flap.

Colorado Democratic Party spokesman Chris Meagher ripped Glenn for declining to weigh in.

“Donald Trump is running for President,” Meagher said in a statement. “His latest comments are inappropriate and show once again is unfit to lead our country. The response by Darryl Glenn, who refuses to stand up to Trump’s dangerous rhetoric any more than the occasional slap on the wrist, is just as appalling. It’s time for Darryl Glenn to show leadership and stand up against this hateful, dangerous rhetoric.”

Meanwhile, CNN reported that an official confirmed that the Secret Service has spoken with the Trump campaign regarding the comments, saying, “There has been more than one conversation.”

Trump, however, disputed the report.

“No such meeting or conversation ever happened,” he tweeted on Wednesday afternoon.

Reuters reported late Wednesday that a federal official told the news agency the Secret Service “had not formally spoken” with Trump’s campaign.

– ernest@coloradostatesman.com

This story has been updated to include reference to the Reuters report on the status of possible Secret Service contacts with the Trump campaign.