Ex-NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani has said there were “pockets” of people celebrating when the World Trade Center towers fell on September 11, 2001.
Rudy Giuliani, who was mayor at the time, disputed claims by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump that thousands of people were involved.
Donald Trump’s comments have been refuted by local political leaders because of a lack of evidence.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie simply said “it didn’t happen”.
Rudy Giuliani, who ran unsuccessfully for the 2008 Republican nomination himself, said: “We did have some [reports of] celebrations, there were pockets of celebration, some in Queens, some in Brooklyn.”
The former mayor said in one specific report which was later proved to be true, owners of a sweet shop were celebrating and children from a nearby housing development “beat them up”.
However, Rudy Giuliani said Donald Trump was willfully exaggerating the numbers and he himself “would’ve been thrown out of the race” had he made such an inflated claim during his 2008 campaign.
Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik later backed up Rudy Giuliani’s comments, saying “10-50” people were reported to be celebrating in different areas throughout the city.
Donald Trump, who comes from New York and runs his billionaire property empire from the city, has come under constant attack for days, ever since he made his controversial 9/11 remarks at a rally in Alabama.
The mayor of Jersey City, which Donald Trump named, said no such thing happened and accused the Republican of “shameful politicizing”.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, his Republican rival in the race for the White House, said it was not true.
“It didn’t happen and the fact is, people can say anything, but the facts are the facts, and that didn’t happen in New Jersey that day and hasn’t happened since.”
Donald Trump leads the Republican race to be presidential nominee, two months before voting begins in the primary contests.
The Republican presidential hopeful has also urged increased surveillance of Muslims in the US, in light of the Paris terror attacks that killed 130 people.
Donald Trump has denied mocking disabled New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski during a campaign address earlier this week.
The Republican presidential hopeful flailed his arms while referring to an article about the 9/11 attacks by Serge Kovaleski, who suffers from a congenital joint condition.
However, Donald Trump insisted he did not know what the reporter looked like.
He tweeted that he simply was “showing a person groveling to take back a statement made long ago”.
“I do not know the reporter for the @nytimes, or what he looks like. I was showing a person groveling to take back a statement made long ago!” the tycoon wrote.
Photo CNN
The row erupted after Donald Trump’s speech at a rally in South Carolina on November 24.
Donald Trump used a 2001 article by Serge Kovaleski, who at the time worked for the Washington Post, to back up his own widely disputed claims that “thousands” of Muslims in New Jersey celebrated the September 11 attacks in the US.
In his article, Serge Kovaleski’s wrote that “law enforcement authorities detained and questioned a number of people who were allegedly seen celebrating the attacks and holding tailgate-style parties on rooftops while they watched the devastation on the other side of the river” in Jersey City.
However, Serge Kovaleski recently told CNN he did “not recall anyone saying there were thousands, or even hundreds of people celebrating”.
At the rally, Donald Trump accused Serge Kovaleski of backing down from his own story.
“Now the poor guy, you gotta see this guy,” the billionaire said, before launching into an apparent impression of Serge Kovaleski, waving his arms around with his hands at an odd angle.
“Uhh I don’t know what I said. Uhh I don’t remember. He’s going like <<I don’t remember. Maybe that’s what I said>>.”
Serge Kovaleski has arthrogryposis, a condition that affects the movement of joints and is noticeable in his right arm and hand.
He reported on Donald Trump between 1987 and 1993. He has said he is sure the businessman remembers him and his physical condition, the Washington Post reported.
The New York Times has called Donald Trump’s actions “outrageous”.
Donald Trump has come again under fire after mocking a New York Times reporter with a congenital joint condition during a campaign rally in South Carolina this week.
The incident occurred as the Republican presidential hopeful was defending his recent claim that he had witnessed thousands of Muslims cheering in New Jersey on September 11, 2001, as the World Trade Center collapsed.
The assertion has since been fact-checked and discredited by law enforcement and government officials who were in New Jersey in the days and weeks following the terrorist attacks.
On November 24, Donald Trump berated New York Times investigative reporter Serge Kovaleski for his recent recollection of an article he had written a few days after the attacks.
Donald Trump appeared to mock Serge Kovaleski’s physical condition; the reporter has arthrogryposis, which visibly limits flexibility in his arms.
“Now, the poor guy – you’ve got to see this guy, <<Ah, I don’t know what I said! I don’t remember!>>” Donald Trump said as he jerked his arms in front of his body.
The gesture was all the more personal because Serge Kovaleski covered Donald Trump while reporting for the New York Daily News between 1987 and 1993, a tumultuous period for the businessman in which he struggled through several financial setbacks.
“The sad part about it is, it didn’t in the slightest bit jar or surprise me that Donald Trump would do something this low-rent, given his track record,” Serge Kovaleski said.
Donald Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks declined to comment on the record about the incident. A campaign official speaking on background said Donald Trump was “not aware of any condition and was not mocking his physical appearance in any way”.
In his speech on November 24, Donald Trump defended his recollection of the Muslim revelers by citing a 2001 article by Serge Kovaleski, who worked for The Washington Post at the time, noting that “authorities detained and questioned a number of people who were allegedly seen celebrating the attacks and holding tailgate-style parties on rooftops while they watched the devastation on the other side of the river”.
Those allegations were never corroborated but have persisted in online rumors in the 14 years since the attacks. In an interview on CNN this week, Serge Kovaleski said he did not recall “anyone saying there were thousands, or even hundreds, of people celebrating”.
Serge Kovaleski’s friends and colleagues took to social media this week to defend him – and excoriate Donald Trump.
The New York Times also issued a sharply worded statement November 25, saying: “We think it’s outrageous that he would ridicule the appearance of one of our reporters.”
On the same day, Donald Trump tweeted: “The failing @nytimes should be focused on good reporting and the papers financial survival and not with constant hits on Donald Trump!”
Donald Trump’s plan to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants from the US has been attacked by his party rivals in the fourth Republican debate on Fox Business.
The Republican frontrunner’s hard-line proposal was attacked as impractical and divisive by John Kasich and Jeb Bush, who are also running for the Republican presidential nomination.
Donald Trump, a billionaire New Yorker who has been leading in the polls, was booed as he tried to counter-attack.
Another source of friction at the debate in Milwaukee was foreign policy.
The eight candidates were divided on whether the US should do more to intervene in the Middle East, especially in the fight against ISIS.
Photo Fox Business
However, immigration sparked the biggest confrontation, when Donald Trump said a wall should be built at the US-Mexico border and all migrants living illegally in the US must be deported.
This was met with disdain by John Kasich, the governor of Ohio.
“Come on, folks, we all know you can’t pick them up and ship them back across the border. It’s a silly argument. It’s not an adult argument.”
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush said it would tear families apart and played into the hands of Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton.
The fourth Republican debate, hosted by Fox Business, began by talking about raising the minimum wage, which several candidates opposed.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio said vocational education was instead a better way to unlock American potential.
“Welders make more money than philosophers. We need more welders and less philosophers.”
At one point, Marco Rubio and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul tangled over the issue of military spending, with Rand Paul saying his rival’s plan to increase military spending went against conservative principles.
“We can’t even have an economy if we’re not safe,” responded Marco Rubio.
Latino protesters have marched in New York as Donald Trump presented the NBC’s Saturday Night Live show.
Donald Trump became the seventh presidential hopeful to host the NBC show, five months after the network dropped him after he made derogatory statements about immigrants.
Groups marched to NBC’s studios, criticizing the network.
Donald Trump’s opening monologue on the show made light of the protests.
When he announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination, Donald Trump described Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug smugglers.
Soon afterwards, NBC dropped the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants co-owned by Donald Trump, saying “respect and dignity for all people” were “cornerstones of our values”.
Photo NBC
However, NBC announced last month that Donald Trump would return to the airwaves for a one-off appearance on SNL.
He had previously hosted the show in 2004.
Donald Trump told the audience in New York that he was there “to show I can take a joke”.
While Donald Trump’s campaign officials have not commented on the protest, he said in June that he was on good terms with his Hispanic employees and that “Latinos love Trump, and I love them”.
In the opening sketch of Saturday night’s show, Donald Trump was heckled by a man calling him racist – only for it to emerge that the voice belonged to Curb Your Enthusiasm star Larry David.
“I heard if I did that I would get $5,000,” Larry David said, referring to an offer made by a Latino rights group to any potential hecklers.
“As a businessman, I can fully respect that,” Donald Trump replied.
Republican frontrunners Donald Trump and Ben Carson, with no political experience, were under attack from the start of the third GOP presidential debate in Colorado.
Ohio Governor John Kasich condemned their “fantasy tax plans” and added: “We can’t elect someone who doesn’t know how to do the job.”
Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon who has edged past Donald Trump in the latest national polls, had a quiet night in Boulder.
His tax proposal, which is based on biblical tithes, was decried by John Kasich, who also dismissed Donald Trump’s plan to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants and build a wall on the Mexico border.
Political friendships were strained by some of the testy exchanges, notably one between former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Florida Senator Marco Rubio.
Jeb Bush urged Marco Rubio, once his protégé, to resign from the Senate because of his poor voting record.
The media were also in the firing line – Texas Senator Ted Cruz got the night’s biggest applause when he attacked the hosts, CNBC for stirring confrontation.
“The questions that have been asked so far in this debate illustrate why the American people don’t trust the media. This is not a cage match.”
The hostility against CNBC continued after the debate when Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus complained about the “gotcha questions”.
The four lowest-polling Republican candidates squared off in an early debate.
Lindsey Graham, a senator from South Carolina, got the most laughs, especially when he said Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders “went to the Soviet Union on his honeymoon and I don’t think he ever came back”.
Primary voting begins in February in Iowa, 10 months before the US goes to the polls to vote for its new president.
Ben Carson has knocked Donald Trump off top spot in the Republican presidential campaign.
The retired neurosurgeon takes a narrow lead in a New York Times/CBS News poll, ousting Donald Trump who has led the pack for nearly four months.
The news comes on the eve of the third TV debate for Republican contenders.
The next-ranked candidates are Marco Rubio (8%), Jeb Bush and Carly Fiorina (7% each) but they are a long way behind.
Conservative Ben Carson, who has expressed extreme views on a range of issues, has 26% of Republican primary voter support, according to the telephone poll of 575 voters.
The 64-year-old lead of 4% over Donald Trump is well within the 6% margin of error.
Photo Getty Images
Florida Senator Marco Rubio has 8% support and the rest closely follow behind him.
Donald Trump has turned his fire to Ben Carson in recent days, attacking him as “low energy” and questioning his Seventh Day Adventist faith.
The two will meet on the stage at Boulder, Colorado, at the Republican debate on October 28.
Primary voting begins in February in Iowa, where Ben Carson also leads the polls.
Ben Carson was criticized this week for comparing abortion to slavery.
The retired doctor has said President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform was “the worst thing” since slavery and that the US government is acting like Nazi Germany.
He also asserted that being gay is a choice, Muslims aren’t qualified to seek the US presidency, the Holocaust could have been prevented if persecuted Europeans owned more guns and – just a few days ago – that the US government should cut off funding to universities that are found to exhibit “extreme political bias”.
Ben Carson’s comments on abortion have set off yet another cycle of outrage from the left – a reaction that he will likely wear as a badge of honor.
Donald Trump has revealed he got his start in business with a “small loan” of $1 million from his father.
Speaking at a town hall meeting in New Hampshire, voters asked the tycoon to show some humility and common ground with average Americans.
The Republican presidential candidate said he “often drives himself” and recently ate at McDonald’s.
Donald Trump’s father, Fred Trump, was a successful real estate developer who gave him seed money to begin investments.
“It has not been easy for me,” the GOP front-runner said.
Photo AP
“And I started off in Brooklyn, my father gave me a small loan of $1 million. I came into Manhattan and I had to pay him back, and I had to pay him back with interest.”
The town hall’s host, NBC’s Matt Lauer, said most people would not consider that a small amount.
One woman at the town hall said some would only vote for Donald Trump if he would “eat a piece of humble pie once in a while”, to which he responded that doing so would expose weaknesses to foes like Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Opponent Ben Carson, a former neurosurgeon, has been gaining on Donald Trump in some polls.
In the last few days, he has been on the receiving end of attacks from the billionaire businessman, who says Ben Carson is “low energy”.
Voting in the party primary contests begins in February and the presidential election is in November 2016.
Donald Trump is making a splash in politics this year. The loud-mouthed reality TV star and casino mogul has rocketed to frontrunner status in the Republican primary race. Touting his business experience, Trump believes he can “make America great again”.
A cursory examination of his record proves somewhat troublesome, however. Particularly interesting is Trump’s propensity to file his businesses for bankruptcy. How can Trump call himself a successful businessman with so many bankruptcies under his belt? The answer, as you might expect, lies with “The Donald” himself. As it turns out, Donald Trump has a very different perception of bankruptcy than the general public does.
“I have used the laws of this country,” Trump told the audience at a debate, “the [bankruptcy] chapter laws, to do a great job for my company, for myself, for my employees, for my family.”
In short, Trump has used bankruptcy laws strictly to restructure his businesses, many of which he was keeping afloat with his own personal stash of cash. When you’re a business mogul like Trump, the people working under you are bound to make some poor decisions, but if anything—Trump’s dedication to doing whatever it takes to keep his projects above the water is actually somewhat admirable. Still, you can’t help but feel Mr. Trump’s success might have more to do with having a good bankruptcy attorney than business sense.
Let’s take a look at Trump’s four biggest bankruptcy blunders, and how he handled those situations.
Trump Taj Mahal, 1991
The Trump Taj Mahal is a sprawling casino and resort located in Atlantic City. When it hit hard times financially, Trump invested a lot of his own money to save it. To come up with the needed funds, he sold off his 282-foot party yacht. He also ditched his private jet, the so-called “Trump Shuttle”, which carried him between Washington D.C., New York, and Boston.
In the end, Trump gave up half of his ownership stake in the Casino. His efforts paid off, however, as the Trump Taj Mahal still stands. Funnily enough, Trump’s largest creditor at the time of the bankruptcy was Carl Icahn, who Trump says he’ll pick for secretary of Treasury if he wins the presidency.
Trump Castle Associates, 1992
Unfortunately, about a year after winning the fight for the Trump Taj Mahal, his other Atlantic City properties experienced some severe financial difficulties. The Trump Plaza Hotel in New York city was also struggling. In all, the Trump Castle Casino Resort, the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino, and the Trump Plaza Hotel in New York (Trump sure likes to put his name on things) filed for bankruptcy.
The restructuring meant Trump had to give up half his interest in the New York Plaza Hotel to his debtor, Citibank. He was able to retain majority ownership of the casinos, however.
Photo Source: counterpunch.org
Trump Hotel & Casino Resorts, 2004
Trump managed to stay out of bankruptcy court for over ten years, but decided it was time to shed some debit in 2004. Over the course of the proceedings, Trump’s enterprises threw off some $500 million in debt. Trump once again gave up majority ownership of some of his properties but remained in control of his casinos.
Trump Entertainment Resorts, 2009
Now here’s something “The Donald” may not have been completely straightforward about during the Republican debate. He claimed he left Atlantic City due to foreseeing a future financial crisis, but he may have been forced out after his businesses again suffered financial hardship and had to file Chapter 11.
“I had the good sense, and I’ve gotten a lot of credit in the financial pages, seven years ago I left Atlantic City before it totally cratered,” he told the debate audience.
In 2009, however, Trump simply resigned from the board of his Atlantic City casino properties. Though many of them still bear his name, he gave up his remaining stake in the companies.
Now it seems Trump doesn’t want to be involved with Atlantic City at all. When two of the casinos that still bore his name again filed for bankruptcy in 2014, Trump sued them to have his name removed.
Steven Tyler has asked Donald Trump to stop using Aerosmith’s song Dream On at campaign events without permission.
Attorneys for Steven Tyler have already sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Republican presidential hopeful, saying the use of the song “gives a false impression” the singer endorses Donald Trump’s presidential bid.
Donald Trump has been playing Dream On all summer, even air-drumming to it at a rally in Las Vegas.
Steven Tyler, who is a registered Republican, says it is not a “personal” issue but one of permission and copyright.
It is the third time a musician has confronted Donald Trump about using their songs to promote his presidential bid.
When Donald Trump announced his candidacy, his campaign played Neil Young’s Rockin’ in the Free World – a song that contains the lyrics “He’s just a rich old man / He never cared for anyone”.
Neil Young, a well-known liberal, demanded that Donald Trump stop using the song and declared his support for Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders instead.
Donald Trump’s campaign responded that “despite Neil’s differing political views, Mr. Trump likes Neil very much”.
The tycoon then used REM’s It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine), prompting singer Michael Stipe to issue a strongly-worded statement, saying: “Do not use our music or my voice for your moronic charade of a campaign.”
Conversely, Steven Tyler is not politically opposed to Donald Trump, who is the current frontrunner in the Republican race for the White House.
Steven Tyler even attended the second GOP debate in August as Donald Trump’s guest, according to the Washington Post, but his representatives issued a legal letter to Trump’s campaign over the weekend.
“Trump for President does not have our client’s permission to use Dream On or any of our client’s other music in connection with the campaign because it gives the false impression that he is connected with or endorses Mr. Trump’s presidential bid,” the cease-and-desist letter read.
“If Trump for President does not comply with our demands, our client will be forced to pursue any and all legal or equitable remedies which our client may have against you.”
Donald Trump was initially asked to stop using Dream On, which features the refrain “dream until your dream comes true” after a rally in Alabama two months ago, but he has continued to use it on the campaign trail, reports Rolling Stone.
Politicians using songs by musicians who do not support them has been a thorny issue for decades, since Bruce Springsteen castigated President Ronald Reagan for planning to use Born in the USA as a backdrop for his 1984 re-election campaign.
Technically, copyright laws give politicians carte blanche to use recorded music at their rallies – as long as the venue has a public performance license issued through a songwriters’ association such as ASCAP or BMI.
However, there is some leeway for an artist to complain their image and reputation is being damaged by the repeated use of a song without their express permission.
Donald Trump has threatened to sue the conservative Club for Growth for its ad campaign in which the Republican presidential hopeful for his liberal economic policy positions.
On September 22, Donald Trump’s presidential campaign released a cease and desist letter sent by the tycoon’s general counsel, Alan Garten, to Club for Growth President David McIntosh.
In the letter written on the letterhead of Donald Trump’s business conglomerate, Alan Garten says the conservative group has misrepresented the billionaire’s views on taxes by taking an old statement that he would like to hike taxes across the board on the “superwealthy,” a view that Trump’s campaign claims he no longer holds.
Earlier this year, the Club for Growth asked for a $1 million donation from Donald Trump, which he declined.
The letter closes with an ultimatum: “In the interest of avoiding what will certainly be a costly litigation process, we are prepared to offer you the one-time opportunity to rectify this matter by providing us with your prompt written assurances that (i) you have stopped running the Attack Ads; and (ii) you will not generate or disseminate any misleading or inaccurate information or make any factually baseless accusations… with respect to my client at any point in the future.”
Photo AP
If the Club for Growth refuses to heed Donald Trump’s warnings, his counsel threatens: “We will commence a multi-million dollar lawsuit against you personally and your organization … as well as pursue all other remedies available to us at law or in equity.”
Club for Growth Action released a statement on September 22 responding to the Trump organization’s letter saying the ad campaign will continue.
“Tough guy Donald Trump starts whining when his liberal record is revealed,” said David McIntosh.
“Trump has advocated higher taxes numerous times over many years, just like he’s advocated for universal health care, the Wall Street bailout, and expanded government powers to take private property.
“Trump’s own statements prove that our ads are accurate. They will continue to run. We suggest that Donald grow up, stop whining, and try to defend his liberal record.”
On September 15, the Club for Growth’s political arm held a press conference at the National Press Club in D.C. to announce it was launching a $1 million ad campaign in Iowa, branding Donald Trump “the worst kind of politician.”
The two ads highlight Donald Trump’s past statements that he identifies as a Democrat and that he has supported using eminent domain to take private property.
Donald Trump, one of the ads says, is “playing us for chumps”.
Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump has said it is “not his job” to defend President Barack Obama, after criticism from fellow Republicans for not correcting a supporter who said the POTUS was a Muslim.
Donald Trump tweeted there was “no chance” Barack Obama would defend him if he was similarly attacked.
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham has said Donald Trump should apologize.
Donald Trump canceled his appearance at a big Republican event on September 18.
The tycoon’s campaign team said he had pulled out of the Heritage Foundation because of a “significant business transaction” that needed his attention.
The criticism has been piling up since a man at Donald Trump’s rally in New Hampshire on September 17 prefaced a question by saying Barack Obama was a Muslim and “not even an American”.
Photo Getty Images
The supporter went on to say: “We have a problem in this country – it’s called Muslims.”
Donald Trump let it go unchallenged and within a few hours, Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton said his failure to denounce “hateful rhetoric” was “disturbing and wrong”.
On September 18, his Republican competitors for the nomination waded into the row.
“He’s playing into this hateful narrative and he has to set it right,” said Lindsey Graham, who said he would never question the president’s faith or patriotism.
Leaders have an “obligation” to correct such statements, said another Republican presidential hopeful, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
Donald Trump hit back in a series of tweets: “Am I morally obligated to defend the president every time somebody says something bad or controversial about him? I don’t think so!
“If someone made a nasty or controversial statement about me to the president, do you really think he would come to my rescue? No chance!”
Donald Trump added that if he had challenged the man he would have been accused of interfering with his right to free speech.
Barack Obama, who has spoken openly about his Christian faith, was born to an American mother and Kenyan father in Hawaii.
In 2011, Donald Trump challenged Barack Obama to produce his birth certificate to disprove rumors that he was born in Kenya, which the president did.
Donald Trump has come under fire after failing to correct a supporter who said President Barack Obama was a Muslim and “not even an American”.
The Republican presidential hopeful sought to laugh off the comment, which was preceded by the supporter saying: “We have a problem in this country – it’s called Muslims.”
The comments were made at a campaign rally for Donald Trump in New Hampshire.
Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton said Donald Trump’s failure to denounce “hateful rhetoric” was “disturbing and wrong”.
Pointing to his first questioner at the campaign event in Rochester, Donald Trump said: “I like this guy.”
“We have a problem in this country called Muslims,” the man said.
“We know our current president is one. You know he’s not even an American.”
“We need this question?” Donald Trump said, laughing.
“But anyway,” the man continued, “we have training camps growing where they want to kill us. That’s my question: When can we get rid of them?”
Donald Trump failed to clarify that Barack Obama is a Christian American, instead replying that “bad things are happening” and saying he would look into them.
Hillary Clinton joined criticism of Donald Trump on social media, tweeting: “Donald Trump not denouncing false statements about POTUS & hateful rhetoric about Muslims is disturbing & just plain wrong. Cut it out.”
In a statement, Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said Donald Trump’s “racism knows no bounds”.
“This is certainly horrendous but unfortunately unsurprising given what we have seen already. The vile rhetoric coming from the GOP candidates is appalling,” Debbie Wasserman Schultz added, calling on his rivals to denounce him.
Donald Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski sought to play down the incident, telling media that “all he heard was a question about training camps”.
“The media wants to make this issue about Obama. The bigger issue is that Obama is waging a war against Christians in this country,” Corey Lewandowski told the Washington Post.
Barack Obama, who has spoken openly about his Christian faith, was born to an American mother and Kenyan father in Hawaii.
In 2011, Donald Trump was one of the leading skeptics, challenging Barack Obama to produce his birth certificate to disprove rumors that he was born in Kenya, which the president did.
Donald Trump has dominated a second Republican debate between the top GOP presidential candidates in the 2016 election.
The front-runner has come under attack from all sides in a debate with an outsider candidate – former tech executive Carly Fiorina – challenging Donald Trump in a way few rivals have.
Donald Trump, a billionaire businessman with no political experience, refused to apologize over comments about the wife of Jeb Bush.
And he was on the receiving end when Carly Fiorina drew huge applause facing up to his recent jibe over her looks.
Fifteen Republicans are vying to be the party’s White House nominee in 2016.
With more than a year until polling day, the second Republican debate in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California saw Jeb Bush and Donald Trump trading blows several times.
Their most notable clash in the debate, hosted by CNN, came when former Florida Governor Jeb Bush demanded that the tycoon apologize to his wife for saying he was weak on immigration because she is Mexican. Donald Trump refused.
But the loudest audience response of the night came when Carly Fiorina was asked about an interview in which Donald Trump said she could not be president because: “Look at that face.”
Carly replied, to thunderous applause: “I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said.”
Moderator Jake Tapper gives Carly Fiorina the chance to respond to Donald Trump’s comments about her in Rolling Stone magazine in which he said: “Look at that face. Would anyone vote for that. Can you imagine that as the face of our next president?”
Donald Trump later said he was talking about her persona, not her appearance.
If Donald Trump predictably took plenty of punches, as the candidate who has held a commanding lead for much of the campaign, he gave as good he got throughout the debate in his trademark style.
Donald Trump returned fire on Kentucky Senator Rand Paul with an oblique personal insult about his appearance, mocked the fiscal record of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and introduced himself with the words: “I say, not in a braggadocios way, I’ve made billions and billions of dollars.”
A second-tier debate for the four other Republican candidates happened on the same stage earlier.
In a combative atmosphere, the four were split over the case of Kim Davis, a Kentucky clerk jailed for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples due to her Christian faith.
The Democratic Party will hold its first debate in Nevada in October, also hosted by CNN.
By next summer, each party will have a presidential nominee who will do battle in the race for the White House.
Donald Trump has responded to former Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar after the NBA legend made his displeasure with the businessman’s presidential campaign.
In a Washington Post editorial on September 2, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar accused Donald Trump of attacking journalists’ First Amendment rights with his bullying style and resorting to personal attacks instead of offering substantial answers on issues such as immigration.
Later in the day, Donald Trump apparently responded, as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar posted an image of his article to his Facebook page with what the six-time NBA champion claimed to be a message from the presidential hopeful:
Photo Facebook
“Kareem –
Now I know why the press always treated you so badly – they couldn’t stand you. The fact is that you don’t have a clue about life and what has to be done to make America great again!
Best wishes
Donald Trump”
Along with the text, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar shared his thoughts: “This note from Donald Trump in response to my editorial is the best, though inelegant, support for my claims. Here again he attacks a journalist who disagrees with him, not by disputing the points made but by hurling schoolyard insults such as ‘nobody likes you.’ But if you look behind the nasty invective, you find the assault still remains against the Constitution in an effort to silence the press through intimidation.”
In a recent interview, Donald Trump says he wants to end the automatic right to citizenship for all children born in the US.
Under the current law, all children born in the United States – even if their parents are illegal immigrants – get citizenship under the constitution.
Other measures the Republican presidential hopeful outlined would include raising visa fees to pay for a wall along the Mexican border.
Immigration is a central plank of Donald Trump’s campaign to be the Republican contender in next year’s election.
“They have to go,” he told NBC’s Chuck Todd during Meet The Press interview.
A tough deportation policy was needed, Donald Trump said, because “there’s definitely evidence” of crimes linked to immigrants living in the country illegally.
He said he would also deport all undocumented immigrants, and pay for a tripling of the number of immigration officers by eliminating tax credit payments to immigrant families residing illegally in the US.
Donald Trump added families with US-born children could return quickly if deemed worthy by the government.
“We’re going to try and bring them back rapidly, the good ones,” the Republican front-runner candidate said.
He added: “We will expedite it so people can come back in.”
“The good people can come back,” Donald Trump said, without elaborating.
Donald Trump has taken to Twitter to slam the three moderators of the GOP’s first debate in Cleveland.
The Republican presidential candidate tweeted that Megyn Kelly and the other moderators were “not very good or professional”, and re-tweeted similar viewpoints from other Twitter users.
Megyn Kelly had challenged Donald trump about his views on women.
Donald Trump was one of ten candidates who took part in the first debate.
They had been selected from a crowded field of 17 candidates by Fox News on the basis of recent national polls.
Donald Trump stumbled on his past support for a national healthcare system but his most uncomfortable moment came when Megyn Kelly challenged him on his views about women.
“You’ve called women you don’t like fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals,” she said.
The tycoon answered by joking that he only said that about actress Rosie O’Donnell and stating that political correctness was one of the country’s biggest problems.
“I don’t have time for total political correctness,” he said.
In the hours after the debate, Donald Trump took to Twitter to criticize the moderators.
He also took aim at Republican pollster Frank Luntz, whose focus group in a live broadcast after the debate gave an overwhelming thumbs-down to Donald Trump’s performance.
It was when Donald Trump said, during the debate, that he would not rule out running as an independent that the audience and other candidates became hostile.
An enraged Rand Paul said: “He buys and sells politicians of all stripes.”
One of the loudest rounds of applause of the evening was for Florida senator Marco Rubio when he mocked Hillary Clinton, who leads the Democratic field.
“First let me say, I think God has blessed us. He’s blessed the Republican Party with some very good candidates. The Democrats can’t even find one.”
Former Texas Governor Rick Perry is not among the 10 Republicans running for president who will take part in the first primetime TV debate.
Donald Trump, Jeb Bush and Scott Walker will take the stage in Cleveland on August 6 with seven rivals.
Fox News selected the 10 most popular Republicans based on five national polls, excluding Rick Perry and South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham.
Those two and five other candidates will take part in an earlier debate.
Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum reacted angrily to his omission.
“The idea that they have left out the runner-up for the 2012 nomination [Rick Santorum], the former four-term governor of Texas [Rick Perry], the governor of Louisiana [Bobby Jindal], the first female Fortune 50 CEO [Carly Fiorina], and the 3-term Senator from South Carolina [Lindsey Graham] due to polling seven months before a single vote is cast is preposterous,” his spokesman said.
In contrast, Rick Perry tweeted that he was looking forward to being on Fox at 5PM for “a serious exchange of ideas and positive solutions to get America back on track”.
The main debate takes place four hours later at 9PM local time.
All eyes will be on Donald Trump, who leads the polls and has made headlines with outspoken remarks about many of his rivals.
One of the Republican frontrunners, Jeb Bush, became embroiled in a row with leading Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton over women’s health funding on August 4.
The former Florida governor was attacked by Democrat Hillary Clinton after he told a conservative Christian audience he wasn’t sure “we need half a billion dollars for women’s health issues”.
Jeb Bush later said he “misspoke” after criticism of his remarks.
Miss Universe Paulina Vega says she will not give up her crown, despite her home country Colombia withdrawing its bid to host the competition.
Paulina Vega had come under pressure to quit after Colombia’s condemnation of the pageant owner, Donald Trump.
Donald Trump caused a furor last month after he said Mexican immigrants who came to the US brought drugs and crime.
Paulina Vega called Donald Trump’s comments “unjust and hurtful”, but said she would continue as Miss Universe.
“The fact that I am not giving up my crown doesn’t mean I am changing my stance about everything I said,” Paulina Vega told local radio on July 6, adding that the Miss Universe organization did meaningful social work.
“I have kept doing my job as Miss Universe all these days. The work continues as always despite all this craziness going on,” she added.
Donald Trump had attacked Paulina Vega for keeping her crown, saying: “Miss Universe, Paulina Vega, criticized me for telling the truth about illegal immigration, but then said she would keep the crown – hypocrite.”
While announcing his candidacy for the US presidency last month, Donald Trump had accused Mexico of sending rapists and other criminals to the US.
Donald Trump also pledged to build a “great wall” on the US border with Mexico and insisted it would be paid for by Mexicans.
He later insisted he was criticizing US lawmakers, not Mexican people.
Following Donald Trump’s remarks, several TV networks across the Americas said they would no longer air Miss Universe, including the Spanish language network, Univision and NBC.
Mexico also announced that it would not send a contestant to Miss Universe pageant.
NBC has fired Donald Trump over “recent derogatory statements” that the mogul made about immigrants.
The network said it would now not be airing the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants that are co-owned by Donald Trump.
Responding to the announcement, Donald Trump said he would consider suing NBC.
Earlier this month, Donald Trump accused Mexicans of adding drugs and crime to the US as he announced he was seeking the Republican presidential nomination.
“They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists, and some I assume are good people, but I speak to border guards, and they tell us what we are getting,” he said in his speech on June 16.
Donald Trump also pledged to build a “great wall” on the US border with Mexico and insisted it would be paid for by Mexicans.
He later insisted he was criticizing US lawmakers, not Mexican people.
NBC had faced pressure from Hispanic advocacy groups to drop Donald Trump’s shows and a petition on the Change.org website gathered more than 200,000 signatures.
On June, NBC issued a statement saying: “At NBC, respect and dignity for all people are cornerstones of our values.”
Celebrity Apprentice would continue to be aired, the network added, as it is licensed from a separate group. Donald Trump stopped hosting the show when he entered the presidential contest.
Donald Trump issued a statement shortly after NBC’s announcement, saying he stood by his statements on illegal immigrations, “which are accurate”.
“NBC is weak, and like everybody else is trying to be politically correct – that is why our country is in serious trouble,” he said.
He claimed NBC had violated its contract and said the move would be “determined in court”.
NBC is the second network to drop Donald Trump after Univision, one of the largest US Spanish-language broadcasters, also ended its coverage of Miss USA.
Polls suggest Donald Trump is running second to former Florida Governor Jeb Bush in the crowded field of Republican hopefuls.
Donald Trump may sue a Twitter user who tricked him into retweeting an image of British serial killers Fred and Rose West.
Donald Trump shared the spoof message that claimed the pair looked at him as a “big inspiration” and asked him to “RT for their memory”.
Later the billionaire tweeted: “I guess this teaches you not to be nice or trusting.”
Fred West was charged with a dozen murders in Gloucester but killed himself before the trial in 1995.
Donald Trump said he may sue the Twitter user who tricked him into retweeting the image of Fred and Rose West
Rose West was convicted of 10 murders – many at the couple’s home in Gloucester – and jailed for life. She was told when she was sentenced in 1995 that she should never be released.
Donald Trump was contacted by the Twitter user early on Monday, September 29, urging him to re-tweet the image of the Wests.
He later deleted the message after it was widely shared on the social media site.
Addressing the incident, Donald Trump later tweeted: “Some jerk fraudulently tweeted that his parents said I was a big inspiration to them + pls RT-out of kindness I retweeted. Maybe I’ll sue.
“I thought I was being nice to somebody re their parents. I guess this teaches you not to be nice or trusting. Sad!”
Whoopi Goldberg lashed out at Donald Trump on Monday’s The View when discussing his tweets about two Americans who contracted the Ebola virus while treating an outbreak in West Africa.
“I don’t really know how to respond to it in a polite way,” the actress said.
“I like Donald, I try to be respectful, but this was an idiotic comment.”
Whoopi Goldberg lashed out at Donald Trump on Monday’s The View when discussing his tweets about two Americans who contracted the Ebola virus while treating an outbreak in West Africa
Donald Trump took to Twitter on August 1 to protest the return of Dr. Kent Brantly and nurse Nancy Writebol to the US, where they are receiving treatment for the deadly virus at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.
“Stop the EBOLA patients from entering the US. Treat them, at the highest level, over there. THE UNITED STATES HAS ENOUGH PROBLEMS,” Donald Trump tweeted.
“The US cannot allow EBOLA infected people back. People that go to far away places to help out are great-but must suffer the consequences!”
Whoopi Goldberg said she understands why Donald Trump would be fearful of the virus hitting American soil, but stressed it “doesn’t carry in the wind” and can only be spread through bodily fluids.
“I’m not defending him, but he is also a friend of mine, so I don’t want to be disrespectful to him, but that was a stupid comment,” Whoopi Goldberg said.
“Do your homework, Donald. Just do your homework.”
Donald Trump is fighting with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel over a sign affixed to Trump’s downtown skyscraper.
The 20ft tall T-R-U-M-P sign was placed 200ft above the Chicago River and is backlit by bright lights.
Rahm Emanuel’s office said the mayor believed the “architecturally tasteful building” was “scarred” by the sign.
Donald Trump has said the sign is “magnificent” and “popular” and argued the city previously signed off on it.
It enhances the building, he told NBC News, and said the building itself was “a great piece of architecture, great for Chicago”.
“Cities love the [Trump] brand and we are getting tweets, letters and phone calls from people who just love it [the sign].”
Donald Trump built the Trump International Hotel and Tower six years ago to replace an ageing Chicago Sun-Times building with its own sign
The billionaire blamed Blair Kamin, Chicago Tribune‘s architecture critic, for stirring up controversy with his harsh criticism during the sign’s recent installation.
“If this sign was in Atlantic City or Las Vegas, nobody would care – but it is in Chicago, and in a part of Chicago full of great buildings from the 1920s to the 1960s and onward,” Blair Kamin, a Pulitzer Prize-winner said.
None of the other towers have signs on them, he added, calling the Trump sign an “egotistical overstatement”.
Donald Trump built the Trump International Hotel and Tower six years ago to replace an ageing Chicago Sun-Times building with its own sign. It is now the second-tallest building in the city.
The former tenants of the site agree with Blair Kamin.
“It is, rather, an obnoxious New York interloper, not unlike The Donald himself,” wrote the Sun Times newspaper, which described the sign on its current building as “sociable but not loud”.
Kelly Quinn, Rahm Emanuel’s spokeswoman, told the New York Times the mayor instructed Donald Trump’s office to look into “options available for further changes”.
But passers-by who were asked by NBC News on Friday to share their thoughts generally liked the sign.
Donald Trump appeared on The Today Show to promote his 2014 Miss USA pageant airing on NBC in June, when the conversation turned to President Barack Obama and his weakness in handling Russia’s actions in Crimea.
“You’ve been critical of the president and his handling of the situation with Ukraine and Crimea,” the show co-host Matt Lauer said.
“I think you said, I’m paraphrasing here, but basically [Russian President Vladimir] Putin was playing with or toying with Obama. That is kind of a common refrain of yours, I should mention.”
Donald Trump replied that others have said the same thing.
“But you always think that Obama is being weak,” Matt Lauer said.
Donald Trump appeared on The Today Show to promote his 2014 Miss USA pageant, when the conversation turned to Barack Obama (photo NBC)
“What would you have done differently than he did in the days before Russian troops went into Crimea?”
The incursion should have never happened, Donald Trump said.
“If you’re the president, that doesn’t happen and it’s not a big surprise,” he said.
“I mean, it should have worked so that a thing like that doesn’t happen.”
The US should be strong in its reaction to Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump said.
“We should definitely do sanctions. And we have to show some strength. I mean, Putin has eaten Obama’s lunch, therefore our lunch, for a long period of time,” he said.
“And I just hope that Obama, who’s not looking too good, doesn’t do something very foolish and very stupid to show his manhood. I just hope that doesn’t happen.”
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