Donald Trump's defense of his June 16 immigration remarks aimed to clarify how the remarks were reported — but could stir up another controversy with accusations that the Mexican government forces criminals across the border, according to Newsmax contributor and National Review Online columnist John Fund.
In an interview with "The Hard Line" host Ed Berliner on
Newsmax TV Monday, Fund says Trump "has to be taken seriously."
"At least he's saying he didn't quite mean what the reporting is saying," Fund notes of Trump's statement firing back at the media in general, and Univision in particular.
"But now he's gotten his foot into another mouth… saying the Mexican government is forcing the criminals across the border," Fund says. "If you're running for president and a foreign government actually has a policy of sending rapists, criminals, and child molesters across the border, you better have some documentation for that. I don't think he does. … People are leaving Mexico because there's no economic opportunity and frankly they have failed their people in their economic policies. But to accuse a government, a valued ally of ours in the drug war, it's just preposterous."
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Fund cautions, however, against dismissing Trump as a candidate.
"Donald Trump is a very serious, calculating person," Fund says. "[H]is entire goal in this process is to build up his brand name. He overreacted here. Clearly he didn't intend for Univision and NBC and Macy's to drop him and that certainly is not good for business. But Donald Trump has to be taken seriously."
"He's not a clown, but he is P.T. Barnum and you have to view him as such and basically treat him as an interloper in the process who has other motives other than being president," Fund adds."[B]ut he has adult [attention deficit disorder]. All he wants is more attention."
On the Democratic side, Fund maintains that Clinton isn't worried at all that a surging Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders can win the nomination.
"They are worried that he is going to continue to build support and force Hillary Clinton further and further to the left on issue after issue, and that will make her more vulnerable in the general election," he says, adding Clinton "has to find a way to somehow deflate him."
"She may even have to attack him and even say, 'I'm not a socialist and we shouldn't nominate a socialist as a Democratic nominee,'" Fund says.
"She doesn't' want a complete coronation, but she doesn't want to get into a long, drawn-out debate with Bernie Sanders about issues because Bernie Sanders is frankly closer to the heart of the modern Democratic Party than Hillary Clinton is," he says.
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