Republican nominee Donald Trump clarified Sunday he had been comparing himself to rival Hillary Clinton when he said “I alone” can fix the country during his convention speech Thursday.
“I am comparing myself to crooked Hillary Clinton. And I will do a much better job,” Trump told NBC “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd Sunday in a pre-taped interview.
The billionaire businessman said he could think of a number of other people who would do well as president, but only he was in a position to win the election and deliver on his promises once in the Oval Office.
Trump spoke during his first sit-down interview since last week’s GOP convention.
“I am running against Hillary. It’s not like I’m running against the rest of the world. I know people that are very, very capable that could do a very good job, but they could never get elected,” Trump said. “I can give you 10 names of people that would do an extraordinary job, but there’s no way they could ever get elected. They wouldn’t know where to begin. It wouldn’t be for them. But for governing, they would be good.
The GOP leader was criticized by Democrats and some Republicans for having taken a strong, independent tone about his ability to save the country, which he painted in a dark light during his Thursday speech.
Trump defended his tone, pointing to mass shootings in Europe that took place in the days following the convention.
“[T]he only negative reviews were ‘a little dark.’ And the following day, they had another attack, and then today you see what happened in Afghanistan with many, many people killed,” Trump said. “They have no idea how many, so many killed. Yesterday it was Munich. And you know, I know they’re saying, ‘maybe it wasn’t terrorism. Maybe it was just a crazy guy.’ But in the meantime he’s screaming ‘Allahu Akbar’ as he’s shooting people, so, you know, we’ll see how that turns out. And all of a sudden people are saying, ‘maybe it wasn’t dark at all.'”
Trump said the speech was positive in that he was going to fix things.
