Donald Trump said Tuesday that Bernie Sanders “showed that he’s weak” by allowing #BlackLivesMatter protesters to take his microphone during a weekend event in Seattle.
And Trump — the Republican presidential contender who, he said, is attracting the biggest crowds to campaign events along with the Democrat Sanders — vowed: “Believe me, that’s not going to happen to Trump.”
“I would never give up my microphone. I thought that was disgusting. That showed such weakness, the way he was taken away by two young women — the microphone; they just took the whole place over,” Trump told reporters during an evening news conference before speaking to a Republican group in Michigan.
“That will never happen with me,” he said. “I don’t know if I’ll do the fighting myself or if other people will, but that was a disgrace. I felt badly for him. But it showed that he’s weak.”
Michael Briggs, a Sanders campaign spokesman, declined to comment about Trump’s criticism on Tuesday.
Sanders wasn’t Trump’s only target on Tuesday.
Asked by Fox News’ Sean Hannity during an interview if raising the Monica Lewinsky affair against the Clintons in a hypothetical matchup between he and Hillary Clinton would be fair game, Trump said: “I guess it is. Look, (Bill Clinton) would have had a much different presidency if he didn’t have Monica and all of these things that happened. … If anything, they probably won’t be doing too much talking about it, but certainly it’s fair game. I guess anything is fair game.”
Trump also hit his rivals, including Clinton and Bush, for fundraising efforts that he said ensure access for top donors and contribute to a corrupt political system.
“When Jeb Bush raises $114 million, when Hillary raises $60 million, which she has — I know the people that gave them the money,” Trump said. “These are not the nicest people in the world.”
He told Hannity he is prepared to spend hundreds of millions of his own dollars on his presidential campaign “if I’m doing well.”
Trump hasn’t talked much about policy, but he told Hannity that he believes he could get Mexico to pay “100%” for a wall along the United States’ southern border, either by imposing a tariff or pressuring the country to “just give it to us.” He also suggested health care savings accounts as an alternative to Obamacare.
But Trump said during his news conference in Michigan that he has no plans to roll out a “19-point plan” delving into policy, and said he doesn’t plan to change his style despite the controversies that have surrounded his campaign.
“The people that we’re dealing with and whatever’s happened — it is what it is. You just look at the results,” Trump said before his speech at the Genesee and Saginaw County Republican Party Lincoln Day dinner in Birch Hill, Michigan.
He’s leading Republican presidential primary polls in Iowa and New Hampshire despite clashing with Fox News moderator Megyn Kelly during and after last week’s prime-time debate — which drew a record-breaking audience of 24 million, for which Trump is taking credit.
“Who do you think they were watching? Jeb Bush?” Trump said.
Trump took several swipes at Bush over a gaffe last week in which the former Florida governor suggested women’s health is overfunded while attacking Planned Parenthood. (Bush later said he “misspoke.”)
Without talking about his own stance on Planned Parenthood funding, Trump said: “The women’s health issues — I’m for that. I watched Jeb Bush give the worst answer the other day — I think that’s going to be his 47%.”
It was a reference to Mitt Romney’s claim during the 2012 presidential election that 47% of Americans are too reliant on the government, and would therefore never support him.
“I think that Jeb’s answer the other day on women’s health issues is a disaster for him,” Trump said. “I cherish women. And I will be great on women’s health issues. Believe me.”
Trump continued to insist that he won’t take the option of running as an independent candidate off the table, saying he only wants to be treated “fairly” in the GOP primary and crediting Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus with doing just that.
Asked how he’d determine whether he’s treated unfairly, Trump said: “‘Fairly’ is an instinct. It’s an instinct. I know what fair is. You know what fair is.”