And he criticized the press for making the money an issue. Second, Trump meant to change the subject from legitimate press inquiries about his handling of the veterans’ fundraiser into a story about the unfair press.
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Dreamstime: Daniel RaustadtYesterday, Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican Party candidate for president, held a news conference where he spewed falsehoods and invective in response to questions from the press and the public about when donations to veterans he had promised earlier were collected and distributed. Since then, it has never been entirely clear how much money the event raised, or whether most of that actually went to any groups supporting veterans.
Trump detailed new gifts to more than a dozen veterans groups, majority $75,000 each.
Some of the donations arrived in February or March, some as recently as last week around the time a critical article appeared in The Washington Post.
The Post reported that Mr. Trump cut a check last week to the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation months after being hounded by news organizations. He also rattled off the names of the groups that received donations, including the Bob Woodruff Foundation, Americans for Equal Living, America’s VetDogs, Navy SEAL Foundation and Foundation for American Veterans. “While there is significant interest in the donations from many in the media we really don’t want to let this distract us from our mission of service to the Naval Special Warfare community and its families”.
“The press should be ashamed of themselves”, a defensive Trump railed during a Tuesday news conference at Trump Tower, called to announce a list of 41 charities that received a cut of the money he raised during a highly publicized January fundraiser.
“Mr. Trump’s team worked very hard to complete this lengthy process prior to Memorial Day Weekend”, she said.
It is, of course, the job of journalists to ask tough questions of presidential candidates.
“I wasn’t looking for the credit, but I had no choice but to do this because the press was saying I didn’t raise any money for them”, Trump said.
Trump has attacked the presiding judge as hostile to him. Trump showing a photocopy of the check. She told CNN that Trump’s tendency to attack his critics “is a recipe for gridlock in Washington”. That tactic should bear fruit nearly immediately, as tough-hitting reports this week have focused on accusations of wrongdoing at Trump University and the shortcomings of his business dealings in Hong Kong, among other topics.
Trump did pick up a new endorsement – one he probably won’t be bragging about.
“One that’s angry, afraid and based on the idea that America is fundamentally weak and in decline”, she said, summing up Trumpism.
Clinton leads Trump by 11 percentage points in the latest Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll.
Trump’s core backers will embrace his rhetoric.
Elmets and others like him bet Donald Trump will have the opposite effect – propelling Republicans to the Democrats’ candidate. He called conservative pundit Bill Kristol a “loser” and Mitt Romney a “fool”.
“I pretty much yelled my head off in disbelief that I got a donation that size”, Biggio said. The veterans said they had not, and as evidence one admitted to having voted for Bernie Sanders, Clinton’s Democratic challenger.
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Reading from a list, Trump said he gave money to various veterans’ charities, including Hope for the Warriors, Homes for Our Troops, the Disabled American Veterans Charitable Service Trust and K9s for Warriors. Job applicants don’t just get to say how great they are at doing something and expect to not have to show their credentials.
