Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and John Kasich all stepped back from their earlier pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee during Tuesday night’s CNN town hall.
“All of us shouldn’t even have answered that question,” Kasich said of the pledge party officials asked all the candidates to sign in September.
No, I don’t anymore,” Trump said, when asked by CNN’s Anderson Cooper if he continued “to pledge to support whoever the Republican nominee is?”
Trump said he has “been treated very unfairly” by the Republican National Committee and party establishment figures. The billionaire front-runner accused rival Cruz of “essentially saying the same thing” in response to a question about the pledge.
Earlier, Cruz had told Cooper when asked the same question: “I’m not in the habit of supporting someone who attacks my wife and my family … I think nominating Donald Trump would be an absolute trainwreck, I think it would hand the general election to Hillary Clinton.”
Donald Trump on Monday defended his past controversial remarks on women, saying they date from his time as a celebrity entertainer.
Radio host Charlie Sykes challenged the Republican presidential front-runner during an interview on WTMJ in Milwaukee, asking whether the rules are different for celebrities when it comes to insulting women.
“The rules aren’t different, but certainly I never thought I would run for office,” Trump responded before the host finished asking the question.
“Many people, you know, Howard Stern would interview me, and everybody would be having fun and the women would be laughing,” Trump said.
In the interview, Trump said he has always treated women well as a businessman, putting many in executive positions.
“I thought this was actually a dead issue until I just spoke to you,” Trump said when pressed about his remarks on women, including his feud with Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, whom he has taken to calling “crazy Megyn” on Twitter.
“Really?” Sykes responded.
“I’d rather be talking about trade; I’d rather be talking about, you know, the things I’m best at: border security,” Trump said, pivoting to other campaign topics.
Reality
As we’ve documented, Trump made a whole ton of sexist comments after declaring his candidacy for the Republican nomination for the President of the United States of America, and not just towards Megyn Kelly. For example:
Just earlier this week he tweeted which wife between him and Ted Cruz is more doable.
After multiple polls continue to come to the conclusion that he has a massive unfavorable rating with women, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is lashing out at media coverage of his treatment of women in a series of tweets that culminated in the statement:
“The media is so after me on women. Wow, this is a tough business,” Trump tweeted Saturday. “Nobody has more respect for women than Donald Trump!”
The tweets include:
"@Tytan01: Dear @CNN, after doing a quick Google & Twitter search there are over 15,000 women's groups supporting DonaldTrump. Stop Lying."
Yes Donald Trump, it’s the media fault and all of your own comments where you disrespected women have nothing to do with this. Here are just a few examples where it was the media’s fault:
When you joked that Hillary got “shlonged” in 2008.
Donald Trump said the U.S. should rethink its involvement in NATO because the defense alliance costs too much money.
In remarks to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Trump said the U.S. pays a disproportionate amount to NATO to ensure the security of allies.
“Frankly, they have to put up more money,” he said. “We are paying disproportionately. It’s too much, and frankly it’s a different world than it was when we originally conceived of the idea.”
In a CNN Town Hall Trump said about NATO:
“[NATO is] costing us too much money, and frankly, have to put up more money… We’re taking care of, as an example, the Ukraine. I mean, the countries over there don’t seem to be so interested. We’re the ones taking the brunt of it. So I think we have to reconsider — keep NATO, but maybe we have to pay a lot less toward the NATO itself. “
Reality
Ukraine is not a member of NATO, and Washington is not providing arms to the government as it is fighting pro-Moscow rebels, though has provided nonlethal aid and has helped support international bailouts of the Ukrainian economy. Once the third-largest nuclear power in the world, Ukraine agreed to give up its nuclear weapons in return for an assurance that the U.S. would help protect its sovereignty. Critics point out that Trump’s remarks were “really quite astonishing,” speculating that Trump is ignorant of the United States’ diplomatic relations with Ukraine.
It is important to point out that the United States “taking the brunt” as Mr. Trump has suggested, is a bit of loaded statement. All member countries have pledged at lest 2% of their GDP to fund NATO, and the United States has by far and away the highest GDP of all member nations, in-fact 6 times more than Germany who has the next highest GDP of the NATO members. The whole theory of NATO is to keep the United States involved in Europe long-term, to promote our goals, and to deter another world war, so of course we would be spending more. However it is fair to point out that President Obama has been critical of some of the European partners for not spending enough to fund NATO.
Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump managed to squeeze a public job interview into a news conference at the site of his upcoming hotel in Washington, D.C.
A woman in the crowd introduced herself as a 9/11 survivor and a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and voiced support for his plans for the U.S. military. Then she asked if work at the Trump International Hotel would be available to veterans.
“What are you talking about here? We are doing some of that actually already,” Trump responded. “We have it very much involved. Why what are you looking for? What kind of a position?”
The real estate magnate invited the woman up to the podium to conduct a job interview for a position at the forthcoming hotel.“So what’s your experience in front of the world?” he asked.
The woman replied, “Well I design. I do wreaths. I do all types of decorations.”
“And you like this building?” Trump said. “So here’s what I’m going to do. There’s the man.”
Trump directed the woman to one of his associates while telling the crowd, “If we can make a good deal on the salary, she’s gonna probably have a job.”
Later on, a reporter pointed out that it’s “pretty remarkable” that Trump just offered a job to a complete stranger and asked what inside his gut led him to that decision.
“I felt good about her. I’ll tell you what, I looked at her, I said she, you know, I have gut instincts, OK? And we’re allowed to have that,” Trump said. “And I looked at her and she asked a question and it was a very positive question… she just seemed like a good person to me.”
He said that maybe she won’t qualify for a position but he thinks she will.
Reality
It was a totally staged publicity stunt.
The reporter who praised Donald Trump’s military policy and inquired about veterans jobs was not a member of the press. Yet somehow, Alicia Watkins, a retired Air Force staff sergeant who has appeared on Oprah, was given media credentials by the Trump campaign and permitted to ask a question of the candidate, a question that (surprise!) turned into an impromptu job interview.
The Trump campaign, which handled credentials for the press conference, initially told CNNMoney that Watkins worked for “a site called Troops Media which focuses on military and veterans issues.”
Later that afternoon Dylan Byers of CNNMoney tweeted that Troops Media did not seem to exist.
When told that there was no evidence of any such site on the Internet, the Trump campaign said it would look into the matter.
CNNMoney then received a call from a woman who identified herself as Alicia Watkins who said she would send an email explaining “why Troop Media is no longer on the Internet as of today.”
The woman, who said her phone was about to run out of battery, hung up while being asked if she still wanted to identify herself as a reporter. The woman called from a blocked number and did not leave any contact information. The promised email has yet to arrive.
When Stop The Donald Trump looked into Troops Media, we can confirm that Troops Media does not exist. We did find a blog called http://troopsmedia.blogspot.com/ with nothing on it except a post from January 5, 2016 stating the blog is rebuilding after a hacker attack. No cached pages can be found on search engines, so it cannot be determined if the site had any content before January 5th. And finally no blogger.com profile id could be retrieved to help identify the owner.
Here’s Donald Trump’s dilemma: He is running for president on a platform of bringing jobs back to the U.S. and making America Great again.
But at his private club in south Florida, he has filled his staff almost exclusively with imported foreign workers. And he has been doing it for years.
The U.S. Department of Labor has confirmed to CNN that between 2013 and fall 2015, Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club posted 250 seasonal job openings and filled just 4 of those jobs with American workers. The club requested the rest of the staff be temporarily imported through the Federal government’s H-2B visa process. Basically, Mar-a-Lago brings in its seasonal staff from overseas
From 2013 to 2015, Mar-a-Lago was approved to hire 246 foreign workers by the U.S. Department of Labor with H-2B visas, which allow U.S. employers to temporarily import foreign workers to fill non-agricultural jobs that can’t be filled with Americans.
To get approval for H-2B visas, employers must prove they need extra workers and that they made an effort to recruit domestic workers, contacted everyone who responded to ads and hired all qualified applicants. After receiving approval, employers must petition U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to bring foreign, temporary workers into the country.
Trump has made the case that he couldn’t find American workers. “It’s almost impossible to get help,” the Republican presidential candidate told CNN last month. “And part of the reason you can’t get American people is they want full time jobs.”
Donald Trump hosted supporters and the press at his Mar-A-Lago residence for an event billed as a “press conference.”
The hitch? He didn’t take any questions from the press.
Flanked by his closest aides and a couple of family members, Trump delivered a relatively brief 16-minute victory speech after racking up key victories Tuesday night before promptly leaving the stage — leaving the assembled press in the back rows of the room scrambling.
As he then made his way out of the ballroom, reporters shouted “Mr. Trump, Mr. Trump,” trying to get the Republican front-runner’s attention.
The billionaire briefly turned around to face reporters before waving off questions and leaving the ballroom.
Trump’s refusal to take questions came after a night of big victories in Florida, North Carolina and Illinois. Trump faltered, though, in Ohio to home state Gov. John Kasich.
The real estate mogul’s decision not to take questions from the press also came hours after Politico published a report sharply criticizing Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.
Trump decided not to take questions from the press after he railed against the hurdles of the campaign trail, including what he called the “lies, deceit, viciousness” and the “disgusting reporters.”
“Some really disgusting people back there,” Trump said of the press, which was restricted to the back two rows while the first 16 were filled with Trump supporters.
Reached later Tuesday night for comment, Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks confirmed Trump would not take any questions.
Asked why Trump did not take questions during an event billed as a “press conference,” Hicks responded: “Is that what it said?”
A media advisory sent by the campaign regarding the event described it as a “press conference.”
Donald Trump finally shared the name of someone he consults on foreign policy: himself. Asked on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” who he talks with consistently about foreign policy, Trump responded:
“I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things.”
“I know what I’m doing and I listen to a lot of people, I talk to a lot of people and at the appropriate time I’ll tell you who the people are,” Trump said. “But my primary consultant is myself and I have a good instinct for this stuff.”
The New York real estate mogul has kept mum on his foreign policy team, despite promising in early February to release a list of his advisers in “about two weeks.”
Trump was also asked on Wednesday morning if his foreign policy was “neoisolationist,” to which he responded “I wouldn’t say that at all.”
Reality
As evidence, Trump claimed he had predicted the rise of Osama bin Laden, a statement which was a total absolute lie.
With thousands of people already packed into stands and music blaring to warm up the crowd, Donald J. Trump’s campaign abruptly canceled his rally here on Friday night over security concerns as protesters clashed with his supporters inside an arena where he was to speak.
Minutes after Mr. Trump was to have taken to a podium on the campus of a large, diverse public university just west of downtown, an announcer suddenly pronounced the event over before it had begun. Hundreds of protesters, who had promised to be a visible presence here and filled several sections of the arena, let out an elated, unstopping cheer. Mr. Trump’s supporters, many of whom had waited hours to see the Republican front-runner, seemed stunned and slowly filed out in anger.
The canceled rally came on a day that Mr. Trump sought to move past the primary fight, saying that the party needed to come together behind him.
Elsewhere, Mr. Trump’s security has tried to identify and exclude potential demonstrators before they enter his events, but large groups of protesters had waited in line for seats here, and engaged in tense disputes with Trump supporters even as the University of Illinois at Chicago Pavilion was still filling up. For more than an hour before the event was to begin, security teams led protesters out, one by one, but many more remained, sparring with Trump supporters.
In a statement, Mr. Trump’s campaign said:
“Mr. Trump just arrived in Chicago, and after meeting law enforcement, has determined that for the safety of all the tens of thousands of people that have gathered in and around the arena tonight’s rally will be postponed until another date,” the man said from a podium. “Thank you very much for your attendance, and please go in peace.”
Several fistfights between Trump supporters and protesters could be seen after the announcement, as a large contingent of Chicago police officers moved in to restore order.
Supporters of Trump still inside chanted “We want Trump” after the event was canceled. Protesters, meanwhile, shouted “We shut shit down” and “We stumped Trump.” Others chanted “Bernie” as supporters whipped out Bernie Sanders campaign signs.
On MSNBC, Mr. Trump said that after meeting with the law enforcement authorities, “I felt it was just safer. I don’t want to see anybody get hurt.” and again during an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity after the event cancellation, Trump stood by his campaign’s statement that they chose to cancel a Chicago rally Friday night at the recommendation of the Chicago Police Department:
We met with security and the law enforcement, who I think did a terrific job, and they told me it’d be best not to go in and do the speech.
Reality
Unfortunately for Trump the Chicago police spokesperson says there were no meetings between police and the Trump campaign about security:
CPD spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told the Associated Press that police never told the Trump campaign there was a security threat at the venue. He said the department had sufficient manpower on the scene to handle any situation. Guglielmi said the university’s police department also did not recommend that Trump call off the event. The decision was made “independently” by the campaign, according to Guglielmi.
Trump also accused Bernie Sanders’ supporters of sowing unrest at the event. Fox News and other right-wing media jumped on this and blamed Sanders for the protest. Watching the video it is obvious there was a handful of protesters on the first floor that started chanting “Bernie” but there is zero evidence Sanders orchestrated the protest. The more likely scenario was the racist and xenophobic Trump had his first rally at a liberally leaning city which resulted in a semi-organized pushback.
