Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump made an unusual foray Saturday night into deep-blue CT, pledging to make “a big play” for the Democratic stronghold.
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After Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine released their tax returns in a bid to force Donald Trump into doing the same, the Trump campaign responded by, well, announcing the release of Mike Pence’s tax returns, reports Politico.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., warned that the “campaign is not over” and described Trump as still being in transition from the bulldog who beat 16 rivals in the GOP primary to a general election candidate who communicates differently to a wider electorate what he wants to do differently than Clinton.
Trump has banned several media outlets from covering his events, including The Washington Post, Buzzfeed and The Huffington Post.
On Saturday, the NY newspaper published an article detailing failed efforts to make Trump focus his campaign on the general election. He said he understands that “people in the establishment” may have “anxiety about the clear-eyed leadership” Trump will bring.
Trump’s sojourn into CT raised eyebrows among many Republicans nervous about his slipping poll numbers in a series of key swing states and battlegrounds – and even some usual GOP turf.
“It’s asinine that he would be in CT holding a public rally less than 90 days before the election”, said Republican strategist Matt Mackowiak. “I have to think this proves the candidate is running the campaign, which explains why it’s such a disaster of biblical proportions”.
Both Trump and Pence have largely blamed the media for overplaying, and in their view, misinterpreting Trump’s controversial statements referring to President Obama and Hillary Clinton as the “founders of ISIS” and Trump’s comments suggesting there was “maybe something “second amendment people” could do” to prevent Hillary Clinton from placing anti-gun judges on the court. “Normally the party wouldn’t make a play”, Trump told the crowd in a sweltering Fairfield gym. “You have a point!”
The governor, though, said he believes Trump was being serious and making an important point, in that Obama and Clinton’s policies created a “vacuum within Iraq in which ISIS was able to arise”.
Trump took a detour from attacking Clinton’s economic record to discuss the 1998 scandal involving White House intern Monica Lewinsky and former President Bill Clinton, whom Republicans attempted to impeach.
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During a rally in Fairfield, Conn., Trump said that he had been contacted by the nonprofit in order to set up a meeting with 18-year-old Giacomo Brancato, whom Trump said in remission. He then made reference to a blue dress that became a symbol in the investigation.
