Reaction to Trump's speech: When is ‘a bloodbath’ not a bloodbath?

Rep. Mike Turner said Sunday it was clear that former President Donald Trump's reference to "a bloodbath" should he lose the November election pertained to the auto industry, not to a surge of political violence.

At a rally in Ohio on Saturday, Trump said, “Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s gonna be a bloodbath. That’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country.”

In introducing discussion of the remark, ABC host Martha Raddatz said that it came in the section of the speech where Trump was discussing the auto industry, though she did not say it was definitely connected to that.

Turner, an Ohio Republican who represents the community that Trump spoke in, said on ABC's "This Week": "I want to congratulate you, Martha, that you correctly identified that the president's statements concerning bloodbath were about the auto industry."

Turner acknowledged that he was not at the rally, though he said he read the transcript of his speech.

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) also accepted the interpretation of Trump's "bloodbath" as pertaining to the American auto industry. "With regard to the autoworkers that he was talking to, he is showing them or he's telling them what has been an economic downturn for them," he told host Dana Bash on CNN's "State of the Union."

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press," also said he was dubious about the uproar over Trump's language Saturday.

"You could also look at the definition of bloodbath and it could be an economic disaster," he said Sunday morning. "And so if he's speaking about the auto industry, in particular in Ohio, then you can take it a little bit more context."

But Cassidy did acknowledge that the way Trump speaks does leave him open to frequent criticism.

"The general tone of the speech is why many Americans continue to wonder, 'Should President Trump be president?' That kind of rhetoric, it's always on the edge, maybe doesn't cross, maybe does depending upon your perspective," he said

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was not buying that Trump's rhetoric was simply meant in an economic context.

"We just have to win this election, because he's even predicting a bloodbath," she said on "State of the Union." "What does that mean? He's going to exact a bloodbath?"

For his part, Cassidy said the press must bear some blame for interpreting Trump's remarks in the worst possible light.

"I also think though that the mainstream media contributes to it," Cassidy told host Kristen Welker. "If you take the one about the bloodbath, which arguably could be about an economic bloodbath not about kind of street violence related to the election, then it gives his defenders something to focus on as something which was distorted."