HAMPTON, N.H. — Donald Trump, doing a giddy victory lap after surviving another seemingly campaign-sinking controversy, went on a tear on Friday night, delivering take-downs of many of his rivals.
Before a packed audience here at Winnacunnet High School, the real estate mogul and Republican presidential candidate offered a long, rambling speech laced with jabs at former Florida governor Jeb Bush, Sen. Rand Paul, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and former business executive Carly Fiorina.
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Trump, who is still topping polls despite his panned performance at last week’s debate and his attacks on Fox News host Megyn Kelly, went after those who he said have attacked him, and have paid the price with voter support.
At a press conference ahead of his speech, Trump started out by going after Bush.
“What a mistake Iraq was. And I heard Jeb Bush talking about it. First of all it took him five days to give an answer,” Trump said, referring to Bush’s comments earlier this year during which he struggled to answer whether, in hindsight, he would have invaded Iraq, as his brother did. “And after the pollsters told him what to say, he said it was bad. Now he’s trying to backtrack. Probably because his brother said, ‘Hey, wait a minute, you’re killing me here. You said it’s bad. That’s my legacy. The Iraq war.’ The Iraq war is a disaster for the Bushes.”
Next was a hit on Paul, who’s been repeatedly attacking Trump.
“Rand Paul, you have to understand, is a disaster in the polls. He’s a disaster on military and defense,” Trump said. “He is doing so badly because he figured out he has to go out and attack Trump because I’m leading by a lot, everywhere.”
Trump made sure to knock Paul for running simultaneously for re-election to the Senate and for president. He said a Republican should challenge Paul in the primary.
“If I were a good, strong Republican from Kentucky, I would run against him in a heartbeat and win,” Trump said during the press conference. He followed up with more hits during his speech, saying, “Rand Paul’s been hitting me because his polls have been going down.”
Trump also went after Graham and former Texas governor Rick Perry, both of whom targeted him early on. With Graham, Trump said the South Carolina senator went from “1 percent to nothing” after he started bashing Trump publicly. The crowd laughed and cheered. Trump knocked Perry’s record of border security when he was governor, saying he did a “lousy” job. By contrast, Trump said the current governor, Greg Abbott, is doing a much better job.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump waves as he leaves the stage with his son Eric Trump, left, and daughter, Ivanka Trump. right, after the first Republican presidential debate at the Quicken Loans Arena Thursday, Aug. 6, 2015, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
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“The new guy is doing much better than him,” Trump said.
Trump sarcastically said he had to stick to his vow of not attacking Carly Fiorina, a former CEO of Hewlett-Packard.
“I can’t say anything because Carly’s a woman, and I don’t want to be accused of being tough on her,” Trump said. “I promised I would not say that she ran Hewlett-Packard into the ground. That her stock value tanked.”
His last hit of the night was against Walker. Trump said Wisconsin has “a lot of problems” but he always tried to be nice to Walker.
“He gave me a plaque,” Trump said. “And then I was very nice to him.” Trump then pointed to a fundraiser for Walker calling him a a “dumb-dumb.”
“And then one of his underlings said something sort of nasty about me,” Trump said. “And he plunged in Iowa, big. And we’re leading in Iowa, big.”
Read more:
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/08/trump-bad-mouths-his-rivals-121389.html#ixzz3irRiF3L5
