Donald Trump blasts CNN for asking about ‘enabler’ attack, clarifies tax plan
Donald Trump called Hillary Clinton an “nasty, mean enabler” of Bill Clinton’s infidelity over the weekend, but the presumptive Republican nominee was in no mood to discuss those comments on CNN Monday morning.
“Well, this is a nice way to start off the interview,” Trump said via telephone when asked by “New Day” host Chris Cuomo about his recent attack on the Democratic frontrunner. “First of all, you should congratulate me for having won the race. I thought, you know, at least there would be a small congratulations, but I’m not surprised with CNN, because that’s the way they treat Trump. It’s the, you know, they call it the Clinton [News] Network and I believe that.”
“Wait, hold on. Mr. Trump, I did congratulate you the last time we spoke,” Cuomo reminded Trump. “I said, ‘Congratulations on winning the big race.’”
“Thank you very much,” Trump replied sarcastically. “So warm and heartfelt.”
At a rally in Eugene, Ore., on Friday, the former “Celebrity Apprentice” star assailed Hillary Clinton for “enabling” her husband’s infidelity.
“She’s been the total enabler. She would go after these women and destroy their lives,” Trump said. “She was an unbelievably nasty, mean enabler, and what she did to a lot of those women is disgraceful.”
“Nobody respects women more than me,” Trump continued. “Have you ever read what Hillary Clinton did to the women that Bill Clinton had affairs with? And they’re going after me with women?”
On “New Day,” Trump eventually addressed Cuomo’s initial question about his “enabler” line.
“It was only retribution,” Trump said. “She is playing the woman’s card to the hilt. I mean, I watched [her] over the weekend, and everything’s about ‘woman’ and ‘Donald Trump raised his voice.’ And it’s all nonsense. And you know what? Women understand it better than anybody. And watch how well I do with women when it counts, when the election comes. Watch how well. Because women want to see strong [national] security, they want to see strong military, they want to see borders. People just can’t come walking across the border like it’s Swiss cheese. And you see the damage that’s been done to our country with our weak borders. You see what’s happening — you see the crime. You see the drugs flowing in and poisoning our youth and everybody else.”
Cuomo again pressed Trump about his references to Bill Clinton’s sexual past to attack Hillary.
“He was the worst abuser of women as a politician in the history of our country,” Trump said. “He was impeached! He was impeached! And then he lied about it. He said nothing happened with Monica Lewinsky. And then he said, ‘Uh, sorry folks, it actually did happen.’”
“Nobody respects women more than Donald Trump,” Trump continued. “And I will be better for women by a big factor than Hillary Clinton — who, frankly, I don’t even think will be good to women.”
Later in the interview, Trump sought to clarify comments he made over the weekend about his tax plan.
On NBC’s “Meet The Press” Sunday, the billionaire real estate mogul sounded open to raising taxes on wealthy Americans. On Monday, Trump said he was referring to his own initial tax policy proposal, and that any tax increases would be made to his proposed policy and not to current tax levels.
“Everybody is getting a tax cut, especially the middle class,” he said on CNN. “I may have to increase it on the wealthy; I’m not going to allow it to be increased on the middle class. Now, if I increase it on the wealthy, that means they’re still going to be paying less than they are paying now. I’m talking about increasing it from my tax proposal.”
Trump also blamed the media for misrepresenting his comments about the national debt.
“It was reported in the failing New York Times and other places that I want to default on debt,” Trump said. “You know, I’m the king of debt. I understand debt probably better than anybody. I know how to deal with debt very well. I love debt, but you know, debt is tricky and it’s dangerous, and you have to be careful and you have to know what you’re doing. If there’s a chance to buy back debt as a discount — interest rates up and the bonds down — and you can buy debt. That’s what I’m talking about.”
“This is the United States government,” Trump explained. “You never have to default because you print the money. I hate to tell you. So there’s never a default.”
