Billionaire businessman and 2016 GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump says he wants an apology from Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton for saying that the Islamic State terrorist group is using Mr. Trump’s comments about Muslims to attract new recruits.
“I will demand an apology from Hillary. She should apologize,” Mr. Trump said Monday on NBC’s “Today” program. “She lies about emails, she lies about Whitewater, she lies about everything. She will be a disaster as president of the United States.”
At Saturday’s Democratic presidential debate, Mrs. Clinton said Mr. Trump, who has proposed a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States, is “becoming ISIS’s best recruiter.”
“They are going to people, showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists,” she said.
Mr. Trump said that “whether it’s Whitewater or the email scandal, she always lies.”
“You’re talking about people dying. You’re talking about making up tapes and videos which don’t exist,” he said.
Mr. Trump was asked whether his criticism was fair, given that his own claims that Muslims in New Jersey were celebrating on Sept. 11, 2001 have been taken to task by fact checkers.
He said in that case, there is proof because “many people saw that happen.”
“I’ve been totally exonerated from that. I’ve had headlines exonerating me and saying Trump was right,” he said. “There’s many, many, many witnesses.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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