With convincing wins in New York on Tuesday, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton each took a big step closer to becoming their party’s nominee. But while both have begun to pivot toward the general election, they’re still fending off attacks from their rivals. Bobby Cuza filed the following report.
As Donald Trump looks ahead to the general election, he says he’s more than capable of toning down his act.
"I’ve said some things in fun. I’ve said it as an entertainer," Trump said. "It’s easier for me to be presidential than for me to be doing what I’ve been doing for the last, really, nine months. But at the right time, I will be so presidential, you will be so bored."
In a sign he’s perhaps becoming more palatable to mainstream Republicans, Trump was endorsed Thursday by New York state Republican chairman Ed Cox, even as he continues to show he’s no conventional Republican. At a town hall-style Q-and-A Thursday morning, Trump defended abortion in some cases, advocated taxing the rich and criticized North Carolina’s transgender bathroom law.
"People go, they use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate. There has been so little trouble," Trump said.
Q: So if Caitlyn Jenner were to walk into Trump Tower and want to use the bathroom, you would be fine with her using any bathroom she chooses?
Trump: That is correct.
Ted Cruz, who, like John Kasich, continues to make the case he’s the most viable general-election candidate, immediately jumped on Trump’s comments.
"This is the political correctness. This is basic common sense. Grown adult men—strangers--should not be alone in a bathroom with little girls," Cruz said.
Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, got a glimpse of her old self in a TV interview Thursday, and she disclosed her now-infamous subway faux paus may have actually helped her with New York voters.
"Probably more people in New York talked to me about, said, 'My MetroCard didn’t work either,'" she said. "I think I got more votes from people who were frustrated with their MetroCard and that I was connected to them somehow."
But while Clinton talked of uniting the party Thursday, her competition isn’t going away, something she and Trump have in common for now.