Reuters:
U.S. Republican front-runner Donald Trump expressed confidence on Saturday that he could push back attempts by his rivals to knock him off his top perch, saying he could stand on New York’s Fifth Avenue “and shoot somebody,” and still not lose voters.
Nine days from the first nominating contest in Iowa, however, it was Republican rival Marco Rubio who won the endorsement Saturday from the Des Moines Register, the state’s biggest and most influential newspaper. On the Democratic side, the Register picked Hillary Clinton.
The endorsements were big developments for both Rubio and Clinton. Rubio, a Florida senator, has been running third behind Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz in Iowa, while Clinton has struggled to fend off a challenge to the Democratic nomination from Bernie Sanders.
Trump and Cruz, Trump’s chief obstacle to a victory in Iowa, held competing rallies across the state while in New Hampshire, other candidates battled for votes in that state’s Feb. 9 first-in-the-nation primary for the Nov. 8 election.
Trump, the New York billionaire and former reality TV star who has been virtually impervious to attacks from his opponents, pushed the limits of his political rhetoric again in Sioux Center, Iowa.
“I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters,” he said.
Trump has been a difficult target for criticism from his rivals because not all of his supporters are conservatives and many are most interested in his projection of strength, not where he stands on a particular issue.
The latest Reuters-Ipsos tracking poll had Trump pulling in 40.6 percent support of Republican voters nationally. A CNN/ORC poll has Trump up in Iowa with 37 percent to 26 percent for Cruz, who has led in some other Iowa polls.
Trump did not repeat the “shoot somebody” line at a later rally in Pella, while stressing to the crowd there that he would tone down his rhetoric as president.
I think he’s right and the same goes for Hillary. I find it more than a little frightening.
More here
Here’s some of the the context:
[(More context: Trump is talking about push polls that force cards on people]
In other words, Trump is making fun of push polls.
They can twist the people they poll any way they wish, even making a positive into a negative.
What is sad is how often this quote has been taken out of his context.
The Sunday shows saying how insensitive the statement was you know the president is just trying to save just one life and blah blah blah. So he will get anoter Day of free advertising, good job MSM.
Let’s hope that doesn’t mean that anyone who has openly stated they won’t vote for him should be worried.
The GOP is just pure evil.
@Nanny G:
I paid a lot of attention to Trump when he first started his campaign. I even gave his credit for bring to the forefront issues that everyday Americans care about. But he has outlived his shelf life. His egotism has, for me, become unbearable. I have had 8 years of a narcissist and I want no more.
Trump could have used another metaphor to make his point. Instead, he used a “they bring a knife, we bring a gun” metaphor in really bad taste.
His supporters remind me of the Ron Paul groupies that didn’t really care about what Ron Paul had achieved or represented, he was just a shiny object they worshipped. Same with Obama, another shiny object.
We conservative gripe and complain how the GOPe has stabbed us in the back. But what did Trump do when he donated $60,000.00 to Mitch McConnell to defeat conservative Matt Bevin? Now we are stuck with McConnell, in some ways thanks to Trump. Perhaps that doesn’t bother you, but it sure bothers me.
@retire05: Dosen’t bother me a bit about his I can shoot someone comment …its all the other stuff.
Not surprising. Hillary got four Americans killed, lied about it and hasn’t lost any of her following. It can happen.