Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was questioned by an independent South Carolina voter about his civility during an MSNBC town hall on Wednesday. He answered by slamming his rivals.
"I think you've been really successful in tapping into the kind of voter who wants a politician to tell it like it is, wants politicians to be honest," the woman told Trump. "And so I think you've done a successful job of tapping into that passion. My question is, where do you think the line is between boldness and honesty and disrespect and rudeness and does that line change from candidate Trump and President Trump?"
Trump replied that he isn't as uncivil as some think, saying networks bleeped him recently when he didn't even say a vulgar word, though he admitted he did repeat a word from an audience member in another instance.
Co-host Joe Scarborough challenged Trump on his civility towards other people, because, he said, "you like hammering other people." Scarborough said during his time as a member of Congress he had a rule of only being at war with one person at a time.
"Your rule seems to be you have to be at war with at least a dozen people at a time," Scarborough told Trump. "What happens if you're president of the United States.... Are you going to have friends on the Hill?"
Trump responded that he has successfully knocked out most of the original 16 other Republicans in the field.
"I was very strong and very bold and I hit a lot of people," Trump said. "I knocked out (South Carolina Sen.) Lindsey Graham, I knocked out (former Texas Gov. Rick) Perry, a lot of people, (Wisconsin Gov. Scott) Walker."
"But if you knock everybody else out and you're president of the United States, then you have to deal with 535 people that are going to be hammering you every day," Scarborough said.
"I have a great temperament. I think [it's] my biggest strength," Trump said.
"Jeb Bush would disagree. Lindsey Graham would disagree," Scarborough said.
"Jeb is a sad case, OK. It's sad," Trump responded.
"See, there you go again," Scarborough said.
"In a year from now people will respect what I did," Trump said. "I had Lindsey Graham, he was at 7 percent. After I hit him he was at nothing and he left the race. Now he's an angry person. I see him on television and he's like an insane person."
"Again," Scarborough jumped in, "you're proving my point."
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