Donald Trump continued his tirade against the Clintons Sunday, recalling old scandals and referring to former President Bill Clinton as "an abuser."
During an interview in Iowa, Trump told NBC’s Chuck Todd that after former Sec. Hillary Clinton accused him of sexist tendencies, he felt the need to turn the tables on her.
"I said, wait a minute. She’s married to an abuser," Trump said of former Sec. Clinton's husband. "A woman claimed rape, and all sorts of things. I mean, horrible things.”
Reminded about his own “ugly" first divorce and marital tumult, Trump responded that “it's fine" and made the delineation that despite his splashed-across-the-tabloids marital drama his own circumstances differed greatly from the former president’s. "You know what? I wasn’t President of the United States. And I wasn’t dealing in the Oval Office, all right? A big difference. I wasn’t the president."
Trump also took the opportunity to point out that since he started attacking President Clinton, “they've become very unresponsive since then.” And Trump noted that a new Fox News poll shows the New York business mogul beating Hillary Clinton in a head-to-head general election match up.
One figure standing in the way of Trump’s path to the general election: Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. New NBC News, Wall Street Journal, Marist College polling shows Cruz is still leading Trump in Iowa, 28 to 24 percent, though that is still within the poll's margin of error. Trump has spent the past few weeks crafting attacks against Cruz, accusing him of copying his plans on immigration and the idea to build a wall, calling him weak on immigration, reminding Iowa crowds of Cruz's shifting stance on ethanol and the renewable fuel standard, and most recently calling into question Cruz's natural born citizenship.
Trump punctuated that final attack point at a rally in Clear Lake, Iowa later Saturday afternoon, saying of Cruz's natural born status: "the point is you're not.
"I think Ted's doing maybe better than I would've thought," Trump admitted on "Meet the Press" about his main Iowa rival. "But right now we¹re one and two. Although, Ted¹s not anywhere close to number two in New Hampshire."
That same poll shows Trump with three times Cruz's support in New Hampshire. Trump repeated several times that he wants to win Iowa, a state that he has visited with more frequency as the February 1st caucus date grows nearer.
The ring-leader of the Republican Party at this juncture has some of his own flip flops to address.
Reminded of his previous pro-choice stances, his past friendship with the Clintons and even his seeming openness to some gun control, Trump simply said "I have changed."
Invoking Ronald Reagan, Trump recalled that Reagan "was a liberal Democrat. And he became a fairly conservative Republican."
And while Trump also accepted that his opponents can grow and evolve on positions too, apparently that doesn't mean he won't call them out on it.
Trump said of his rival Ted Cruz, for example: "Ted just switched his views on ethanol. He was totally against ethanol. Now, all of a sudden, he's for it."
