CARMEL, Ind. — Donald Trump on Monday jokingly called opponent Ted Cruz “cruel” for not helping Carly Fiorina after a fall at a campaign event Sunday, telling the crowd “even I would’ve helped her!”
“Wow, that's really cruel,” Trump said at a rally in Carmel, Ind., drawing laughter from the crowd.
“She fell off-she just went down. She went down a long way, right? And she went down right in front of him, and he was talking, he kept talking. He didn't even look…that was a weird deal.”
It was one of an array of jokes Trump made at the afternoon rally, one of his last before Hoosiers head to the polls on Tuesday. Both his buoyant demeanor and the cheering crowd, which gave him multiple standing ovations, signaled how confident Trump is heading into Election Day, as a new NBC News/WSJ poll out this weekend gave him a 15-point lead on Cruz in the state.
A Trump win in Indiana would be a devastating blow to anti-Trump forces and open up his path to the nomination considerably. Trump told the crowd he fully expects to win the nomination outright with a majority of delegates and entirely avoid a contested convention — and Indiana could end the contest tomorrow.
“We are way over and way ahead of [delegate] projections, and we’ll do it on the first ballot – but if we win Indiana it’s over,” he said, echoing a declaration he’s made all week as he’s campaigned across the state.
Trump also knocked Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich for forming an alliance to stop him which quickly fell apart, but dismissed it, saying “since making the deal their numbers tanked.”
But he also took aim at Hillary Clinton, keeping up the pivot to the general election he’s launched over the past few weeks as he seems to be locking up the nomination.
Trump mocked Clinton's use of a teleprompter, saying she was “screaming” at the teleprompter during a victory speech but noting his attack would be criticized as sexist.
“I would say that she started screaming at the teleprompter but I'm not allowed to say — you know why. Now, if she was a man I could say it, but as a women, ladies, I'm sorry, I'm not allowed to say it,” he joked.
At times, however, he sounded almost like Clinton’s Democratic primary opponent, Bernie Sanders, telling the crowd that rich Americans “bet against the country” and “frankly, I don’t like the rich people.”
Trump also exhibited some of the impulsiveness that continues to make GOP leaders wary of his candidacy, suggesting instead of State Dinners he’d take visiting leaders out to McDonald’s before negotiations and even floating cutting ties with China in response to criticism he said he received from Chinese leaders over his rhetoric.
“Maybe we’re better off not having that partnership,” he said.