WASHINGTON (AP) – The Latest on the 2016 presidential campaign. (all times local):
6:50 a.m.
Will the real Donald Trump stand up? The presidential candidate, fresh off five Republican primary victories in the Northeast, says the Trump that people see on any given day depends on the political circumstances in play at the time.
He’s pushing back against suggestions that he should tone down his combative campaign style as he moves closer to clinching the GOP nomination.
In a phone-in interview Wednesday, the billionaire real estate mogul told CNN that “I may tone it down.” But he quickly added, “I may tone it up.”
Trump, who reportedly has been urged to show a more presidential demeanor on the campaign stump, said, “You have to be flexible. I will determine when I see how other people punch back.”
In the interview on CNN’s “New Day,” he showed no inclination to significantly alter the bombastic campaign style that has landed him within reach of the presidential nomination. “I’m not changing,” Trump told a news conference in Manhattan on Tuesday night.
6:40 a.m.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, buoyed by his clean sweep of Northeast primaries, is pushing forward with his charge that Democrat Hillary Clinton is “playing the woman card.”
Trump tells CNN’s “New Day” in a telephone interview Wednesday that “she does have the woman card” but said that “a lot of women don’t like Hillary, despite the card.”
Pressed on the issue, the billionaire real estate mogul said that Clinton, who won four of five primaries Tuesday and is closing in on the Democratic Party nomination, “is playing the woman card left and right.”
He said in the interview that “she didn’t play it” when she challenged Barack Obama for the party’s nomination four years ago. But he added, “She’s doing it more now. She’ll be called on it.”