'Not very articulate': GOP lawmaker defends Trump by saying he doesn't have 'the best words'

The conservative defenses for Donald Trump on Tuesday may have peaked when Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) tried to explain his latest outburst by undermining his speaking ability.

"You're treating Donald Trump's words like he is the most articulate person who's ever graced our ears with his words, and that's not true. He is not a politician," Hunter told CNN host Wolf Blitzer. "He is not a person like you who's very articulate, very well-spoken. He's a businessperson who's running for president."

Hunter was part of a parade of conservative figures who appeared on the network after Trump intimated that Second Amendment advocates could "take care of" Hillary Clinton should she win the presidential election.

At the same time, Hunter's argument -- that Trump can't express himself very well -- runs counter to a boast from the Republican presidential nominee last December.

"I used to use the word incompetent. Now I just call them stupid," he said of the State Department at the time. "I went to an Ivy League school. I'm very highly educated. I know words, I have the best words."

Instead, Hunter said Trump was being held to too high a rhetorical standard.

"Let's say he was an English professor with a PhD in grammar, then I think we could go through it this way and dissect what he said literally based off the sequence that he said it," he argued. "I'm not doing that with Mr. Trump because you can't."

Watch footage from the interview, as posted online, below.