Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Friday that he would support women in military combat roles, but would follow that advice from his military advisers "because I would want to hear that without a political bent."
"The answer is yes because they're really into it," the billionaire businessman
told Chris Cuomo on CNN. "And some of them are really, really good at it.
"I would really speak to the generals, because I would want to hear that without a political bent," Trump cautioned. "To the public, they say, 'yes, yes, yes,' but I would want to hear it without the political bent."
In an interview broadcast after Trump spoke to thousands of supporters at an outdoor rally in Mobile, Alabama, Cuomo asked the developer how he would respond to recent attacks on capitalism by Pope Francis, who is scheduled to visit the United States next week.
"I'd say, "ISIS wants to get you,'" Trump responded, referring to Islamic State terrorists. "Do you know that ISIS wants to go in and take over the Vatican?"
"You'd scare the Pope?" Cuomo asked.
"I'd have to scare the Pope," Trump responded before jokingly adding, "The pope, I hope, can only be scared by God.
"But the truth is that if you see what's going on, you'd better hope that capitalism works — because it's the only thing we have now.
"It's a great thing, when it works properly," Trump said. "In our country, it has not been working properly."
He slammed heavy federal regulation and other restrictions imposed by the Obama administration as strong impediments to making America competitive.
"We aren't competitive like we used to be," Trump told Cuomo. "We have to open up our country to great capitalists."