ANAHEIM, California — Donald Trump on Wednesday said a new Inspector General audit that found Hillary Clinton violated federal records rules through her use of a private email server as secretary of state is simply “not good.”
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has been outspoken about Clinton’s email scandal, saying she shouldn’t even be allowed to run for office. Yet despite the new report, his comments on the likely Democratic nominee’s email usage were short and lacked his usual biting bluntness.
“She had a little bad news today, as you know, from some reports came down, weren’t so good,” Trump said at a rally here.
Trump mostly focused his Clinton attacks on her foreign policy record, listing Benghazi, the “catastrophe” in Libya, and the war in Iraq, Trump tied the events together as “all Hillary Clinton.”
“If she wins,” he told the half-full Anaheim Convention Center, they better “get used to” having “nothing but turmoil” on the world stage. “You can’t take that,” he said.
RELATED: Clinton broke federal rules with email server, audit finds
Trump also had attacks at the ready for his Republican rivals — and the reminder that a foe could turn friendly at any time. Trump called Mitt Romney a “choker” who “walks like a penguin” and predicted that Trump could have helped the former governor win Florida if only he’d asked. He then tagged the former nominee as a hypocrite, saying Romney didn’t release his own returns “until almost the end of the election — September and October – and he’s telling about Trump and his tax returns.”
Still, he reminded that unity with Trump could happen at a moment’s notice. Rick Perry, Trump noted, was now a Trump supporter, despite earlier bashing of the real estate mogul. And relations have even warmed with South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham after the two ended a long feud with a recent phone call.
Trump admitted he was “no angel” to Graham for giving out his phone number last summer and joked that he thought Graham’s phone “blew up or something” after the incident. “If I can get a call from Lindsey Graham, I can get a call from anybody,” Trump said. “Maybe Mitt will call me one of these days.”
Prompted by someone in the crowd about if Jeb Bush had come around to him yet, Trump said he had not but said “he’ll get a burst of energy and he will do it, believe me.”
Trump also touted females supporters by parading a group of women on stage with him. “I’m telling you, women do like me,” he said before pivoting to attacking Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Clinton moments later for their speaking styles.
“That’s Pocahontas. Pocahontas. That’s this Elizabeth Warren. I call her goofy,” Trump spat. “She gets nothing done. Nothing passed. She’s got a big mouth. And that’s about it. But they use her because Hillary is trying to be very presidential.” Then he moved on to Clinton. “She’s stopping with the shouting. Okay? But then I listened before. And I’ll be honest with you. I cannot listen to her. I cannot listen to her. Can’t listen.” New, angrier protesters arrive outside Trump Anaheim event. They start by ripping apart Trump signs. pic.twitter.com/v1itBSvg5Z The former reality television star said he hopes to run against Clinton, but he thinks her ongoing email troubles threaten to detail her candidacy. “It could be we’re gonna run against crazy Bernie, that could be, could be. Crazy Bernie. He’s a crazy man but that’s OK, we like crazy people.” Protesters gathered outside Trump’s rally here, and though several arrests were made the demonstrations did not turn violent the way they did outside a rally in Albuquerque the night before. This article first appeared on NBCNews.com.
Ali Vitali is MS NOW's senior congressional correspondent and the host of "Way Too Early." She is the author of "Electable: Why America Hasn’t Put a Woman in the White House … Yet." Recommended
