Trump: 'I like to deny things'

Climate change. Supporting the Iraq War. Accepting the results of the presidential election.

Even Donald Trump admitted Friday he relishes denying things.


Speaking at a rally in Fletcher, North Carolina, Trump denounced what he hyperbolically suggested were “thousands and thousands of ads” run by Hillary Clinton’s “juggernaut,” which he said has raised “billions of dollars.”

“I turned on the other day — I was in Florida, and I was in Pennsylvania — I turned on the television. It was ad after ad after ad,” Trump said. “Most of those ads were phony ads. Most of the things in those ads were false. They were false. I never said it. They know I didn’t say it.”

Trump was seemingly about to identify which ads he was claiming were false. But he remembered his campaign’s advice and caught himself before disclosing any details.

“They have different things. The — I won’t go into things because my people go crazy,” he said. “They say, ‘Don’t be particular, just’ — I like to deny things. Like, I like to deny — because — but they say, ‘Oh, talk about jobs.’ But these things are so false. All of these things, they’re so false. They’re such lies.”

Clinton’s campaign announced Friday it would be featuring Khizr Khan, the father of Humayun Khan, a deceased Muslim American soldier, whose family drew Trump’s ire after speaking ill of him at the Democratic National Convention, in an ad that will run in Florida and other battleground states. In the minute-long spot, Khan asks Trump: “Would my son have a place in your America?”

Clinton’s campaign has also run ads highlighting Trump’s disparaging rhetoric toward women, Republicans blasting their party’s standard-bearer and Trump’s outsourcing of American jobs that make products overseas.

“But Hillary, it’s ad after ad after ad — all paid for by Wall Street and special interests,” Trump said, then noting the margin to which Clinton and her allies have outspent him on TV advertising in Florida, a key state in which Clinton leads by nearly 4 percentage points, according to the RealClearPolitics average of state polls.

“All paid — and I’m saying to myself, I think they said in Florida the number of ads are gonna be 50 to 1, and we’re tied in Florida. And I think we’re gonna win Florida,” Trump said. “But the ads are phony ads. They’re untrue — ahh, mostly untrue. There’s a little truth in there. But mostly — and remember when you’re watching television, you see one of the thousands and thousands of ads, just remember: Put Wall Street on top. It’s Wall Street. That’s who pays for it or largely pays for it.”

Trump’s confession that he likes to deny things also comes on the same day Clinton’s campaign posted a “Google It” video, fact-checking a few of the instances in which Trump blurted “wrong” during the last presidential debate. It includes his widely debunked assertion that he didn’t support the Iraq invasion, that no quotes from him exist in which he speaks cavalierly about nuclear weapons use, that he didn’t mock a disabled reporter and that he’s never met Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Did Trump say these things?” the on-screen text reads. “Yes. Obviously.”

Clinton also ribbed Trump for his “wrong!” outbursts Thursday evening at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, an annual roast and Catholic fundraiser that both candidates attended.

“Donald, after listening to your speech, I will also enjoy listening to Mike Pence deny that you ever gave it,” she said.