Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses a rally at Quillen Arena on Friday in Harrington, Del. (Ricky Carioti
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Saturday sought to quell scrutiny over leaked comments made by his chief strategist about the real estate mogul “playing” a “part” on the campaign trail.
“What he said, ‘No, Mr. Trump can be this way, that way, he can be anything he wants.’ ” Trump attempted to explain Saturday in Bridgeport, Conn., referring to comments his chief adviser, Paul Manafort, made to Republican National Committee members in a private meeting.
“What I say here, it’s always got to be said in a different way. Depends on your audience, you have to be different when you have this audience, you have to be different than if we have 12 people sitting in a conference room,’ ” Trump said later in Bridgeport. “Unless you’re Ted Cruz, who always speaks the same way. I always say he’s an okay debater, but he’s a terrible talker.”
Audio of Manafort’s comments leaked Thursday, raising eyebrows among Trump’s Republican critics, who have long questioned the billionaire’s conservative bona fides.
“He gets it,” Manafort told RNC members Thursday. “The part that he’s been playing is now evolving into the part that you’ve been expecting. The negatives will come down, the image is going to change, but ‘Crooked Hillary’ is still going to be ‘Crooked Hillary.’ ”
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, the billionaire’s chief rival for the GOP nomination, has used the comments to attack Trump’s authenticity. He said in interviews Thursday that Trump has been “lying to us” and is “pretending” to be a conservative to fool voters.
Trump blasted Cruz on Saturday during campaign stops in Connecticut in Waterbury and Bridgeport, accusing him of twisting Manafort’s words for political gain. The billionaire showman insisted that Manafort’s comments were not incorrect or a gaffe, but instead merely showcased the reality of adjusting stylistically to different audiences.
“He took the statement of a campaign guy who just wanted to say, ‘We can all be friends, we’re going to get along,’ ” Trump told the crowd in Waterbury. “Donald’s not always like this, this isn’t always Donald, Donald’s very smart, and he’s very calm.”
“Which is true, actually. I actually have low blood pressure, can you believe it?” he added.
Trump also criticized those who recorded the conversation with Manafort, even while insisting that the comments have been misconstrued but were ultimately correct.
“To show you how honorable the people in the room were, they taped these conversations. They didn’t tell anybody. Probably illegal,” he said in Bridgeport. “I wonder if it's legal. Maybe they have to go to jail.”