Donald Trump, the morning after his victory against Ted Cruz in Indiana, said he was not apologizing for statements he made Tuesday linking Cruz's father to President John Fitzgerald Kennedy's
assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, saying he was referring to a magazine story in his comments.
"What I was referring to was a picture reported in a magazine, and I think they didn't deny it," Trump told ABC "Good Morning America" host George Stephanopoulos. "I don't think anybody denied it...it was a major story and a major publication."
Stephanopoulos, noting that Trump had "kind words" about Cruz while making his victory speech Tuesday night, pointed out that the article was printed in "The National Enquirer" and asked if Trump thought he owned Cruz's father, Cuban immigrant Rafael Cruz, an apology.
"Even the expert who cited it wasn't sure it was Mr. Cruz," said Stephanopoulos.
"It gave you O.J. Simpson and gave you many, many things," Trump said, in defense of the tabloid. "You can't knock 'The National Enquirer.' It's brought many things to light not all pleasant, the fact it was a cover story on 'The National Enquirer' picked up by many other people and magazines and periodicals and newspapers and all I did was refer to it."
Earlier in the morning, on
MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program, however, Trump said an endorsement from the Texas senator would be "nice," but it wasn't necessary, but Tuesday night, he praised Cruz's skills as a competitor.
But as for Cruz's father, Trump said Wednesday that he was "very active in the campaign, and said nasty things about me in the morning, and it was reported and it wasn't nice what he said about me. I just referred him to articles that were in various periodicals."
Trump also shot back at the news about a new
CNN/ORC poll that shows Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton ahead of him by 54-41 percent, telling Stephanopoulos that a Rasmussen Reports poll shows him ahead of her by 41-39 percent.
"I haven't started yet," Trump said about fighting against Clinton. "There were 17 people that I had to win against and now it's going to be Hillary, so we'll see what happens. I mean, it's going to be I think a very interesting race."
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