Trump rails against media, rehashes controversies in volatile speech

Donald Trump railed against the media in an erratic Ohio speech Wednesday, blaming news outlets for stirring up controversies that have followed him in recent days.

The candidate quickly jumped from one topic to another during the rally, rehashing several issues that have hung over his campaign this week in order to put blame on the media. 

{mosads}Trump defended the controversial anti-Hillary Clinton image he posted on Twitter over the weekend featuring his likely rival over $100 bills and the words “Most corrupt candidate ever!” in a six-pointed star. 

Many said the image was anti-Semitic, but Trump suggested during the rally Wednesday that news outlets were “racially profiling” by linking the star in the image to the Star of David.

“So one of my guys, who is married to a Jewish woman,” Trump said, referring to the campaign’s social media director, Dan Scavino, “he put out a tweet talking about crooked Hillary Clinton and on the tweet was a star, a star, like a star.”

“All of a sudden it turned out to be in the minds of the press, only because it could have been a sheriff’s star, it could have been a regular star,” Trump said. “They said ‘Oh it had money behind it.’ So actually they’re racially profiling.”

“They’re profiling, not us, because why are they bringing this up? Why do they bring it up?” Trump continued.

He said his campaign should have left the image up instead of replacing it with a picture using a circle instead of the six-pointed star. And shortly after the speech, he tweeted a picture of a book about Disney’s “Frozen” that shows a similar star on the cover. 

“Where is the outrage for this Disney book? Is this the ‘Star of David’ also? Dishonest media! #Frozen,” he wrote.

The presumptive GOP presidential nominee also brought up his recent comments about Saddam Hussein, which have sparked backlash this week, calling him a “bad guy” but continuing to praise his handling of terrorists. 

He blamed the media for misinterpreting comments he made about Hussein on Tuesday.

“Last night, I said, ‘Bad guy, Saddam Hussein, bad guy,’ then I said again, ‘Saddam Hussein is a bad guy, but he did one thing well, he killed terrorists,'” Trump said during the rally.

“I wanted to emphasize, because I knew if I didn’t emphasize, they’d say I like Saddam Hussein.”

“I wake up, I turn on the television … ‘Donald Trump loves Saddam Hussein. He loves Saddam Hussein,'” Trump said, imitating a news broadcaster. “I said, ‘That’s not what I said.'”

“I don’t love Saddam Hussein, I hate Saddam Hussein,” Trump said. “But he was damn good at killing terrorists.”

He said the media ignored a number of other topics he touched on during his speech Tuesday to zero in on the Hussein comments.

Trump took aim specifically at NBC News’s Chuck Todd, referring to the anchor as “Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd,” and frequently called the press “liars” and “dishonest.” 

Trump may have missed a prime opportunity to make a strong rebuke against Clinton regarding her email controversy. After former House Speaker Newt Gingrich set up the candidate to go strong against his likely general-election rival in his introduction — raising questions about the decision that Clinton will not face charges over her use of a personal email server while secretary of State — Trump attacked her in the beginning of his speech but quickly veered to his own controversies. His initial comments largely centered on him reading parts of FBI Director James Comey’s findings from a piece of paper.

He delivered scattered attacks against Clinton throughout the speech, circling back to the topic closer to the end and going so far as to suggest that Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, had bribed Attorney General Loretta Lynch into not pressing charges, a claim he also made the day before.

“The attorney general comes out and the attorney general says no charges. It’s bribery,” Trump said. “She said she’s going to reappoint the attorney general, and the attorney general is waiting to make the determination as to whether or not she’s guilty and boy was that a fast determination, wow.”

And when a mosquito flew up on the podium, he swatted it and took another shot at Clinton.

“I don’t want mosquitos around me. I don’t like mosquitos. I don’t like those mosquitos, I never did,” he said. “Speaking of mosquitos, hello Hillary, how are you doing?”

Still, Trump did offer praise to Gingrich, calling him “smart” and “tough” and raising speculation about the former Speaker’s chances of being picked as the candidate’s running mate.

“But I can tell you, in one form or another, Newt Gingrich is going to be involved with our government, that I can tell you,” Trump said. “I’ll tell you one thing folks: I’m not saying it’s Newt, but if it’s Newt, nobody’s going to be beating him in those debates, that’s for sure.”