2016 Regretful Trump pivots 107 days late The Republican nominee delivers one of the most comprehensive, on-message rationales for his candidacy to date.

Three and a half months after sealing the Republican nomination, Donald Trump pivoted to contest the general election on Thursday night, expressing regret for his past failures to “choose the right words” and delivering one of the most comprehensive, on-message rationales for his candidacy to date.

Speaking from prepared remarks on the heels of another staffing shakeup, Trump positioned himself as the champion of voiceless Americans against a corrupt and incompetent elite and the leader of an inclusive movement who repeatedly condemned “bigotry.”


His address, delivered at a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, presented the sort of message Republican leaders have been waiting months to hear. But with 82 days left until the election and early voting only weeks away, even a flawless sprint to the finish line may be too little too late for Trump to salvage his flailing campaign.

Early in his remarks, the New York businessman nodded at the months he has squandered, acknowledging that his own mouth had hindered his candidacy. “Sometimes in the heat of debate and speaking on a multitude of issues you don’t choose the right words or you say the wrong thing. I have done that,” Trump said to laughter and cheers from his supporters.

“And believe it or not I regret it. And I do regret it, particularly where it may have caused personal pain. Too much is at stake is for us to be consumed by these issues, but one thing I can promise you is this. I will always tell you the truth,” said Trump, who did not specify which words he regrets saying.

“I speak the truth for all of you, and for everyone in this country who doesn’t have a voice,” said Trump, singling out factory workers, veterans and families who live near the US-Mexico border.

The Republican standard-bearer, who has been chastised by fact-checkers for making an unusual number of false claims in the course of his campaign,went on to say, “Sometimes I can be too honest, Hillary Clinton is the exact opposite: she never tells the truth.” PolitiFact has rated 70 percent of the Trump claims it reviewed as ranging from "mostly false" to "pants on fire," the Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking group's harshest rating.

Trump, who often relies on insinuation and innuendo to telegraph inflammatory messages, also lambasted the media for spending too much time parsing his statements and too little holding politicians accountable. “They will take words of mine out of context and spend a week obsessing over every single syllable, and then pretend to discover some hidden meaning in what I said,” he lamented.

Trump has struggled to extend his appeal beyond white voters and is often described by poll respondents as “racist,” but on Thursday he continued his attempt to reposition himself as a champion of minorities and a bulwark against intolerance.

“Those who believe in oppressing women, gays, Hispanics, African-Americans and people of different faiths are not welcome to join our country,” he said.

The New York businessmen also vowed to “reject the bigotry of Hillary Clinton,” a brazen gambit from a candidate who has unapologetically retweeted white supremacists and statistics that inaccurately blame black Americans for more murders than they actually commit.

The real estate mogul said black voters had gained little from decades of Democratic rule and therefore had little to lose by rolling the dice on him. ”If African-American voters give Donald Trump a chance by giving me their vote,” he said, “the result for them will be amazing.”

