GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump said Tuesday outside of a polling place in Wisconsin that he feels “great” about turnout in the state and that he’s had worse stretches in his campaign than last week.
“We feel great,” he said on MSNBC. “The turnout’s been fantastic — I think we’re going to have a great day.
“Will we win today? I can’t tell you. But we’re going to have a great turnout,” he said. “I think we’re going to do very well.”
Mr. Trump is coming off a week that saw his campaign manager get charged with simple battery for allegedly manhandling a reporter last month. His campaign also issued several clarifying statements about Mr. Trump’s position on abortion after he said during an MSNBC town hall that women who undergo abortions should face some sort of punishment if the practice was made illegal.
In a followup statement, Mr. Trump said the doctor or other person performing the abortion, not the woman, would be held legally responsible in that case.
“But I’ve had worse weeks on the campaign,” he said Tuesday. “I’ve had so many weeks that I think a couple of them that were worse and in one case I went up in the polls, so you know, [it] couldn’t have been so disastrous.
“We actually have a very, very good campaign going — I’m number one by a lot,” he said. “And you know, the thing that nobody talks about are the votes. I’m millions of votes more than anybody else.”
Mr. Trump also continued to defend Corey Lewandowski, his campaign manager. A security tape released last week appeared to show Mr. Lewandowski grab Michelle Fields, then a reporter for Breitbart, as she tried to get Mr. Trump’s attention after a press conference in Florida, touching the candidate.
“If you look at the tape, what did Corey Lewandowski do? So am I supposed to be loyal to a person?” Mr. Trump said. “Or because somebody filed something, because if you look at the complaint — we don’t have to get into it now, but people have looked at that tape and they’re trying to say, ’what did he do wrong?’
“So I have to be loyal to people just like I’ll be loyal to the people of this country,” Mr. Trump said. “But when you analyze it, it’s called ’give me a break.’”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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