Donald Trump on questioning Clinton's faith, firing campaign manager
With the political conventions about one month away, the presidential candidates are warming up with hard-hitting speeches.
In Ohio Tuesday, Hillary Clinton said Donald Trump's economic policies would start a new recession. Meanwhile, Trump held a private meeting with evangelical leaders in New York where he seemed to question Clinton's commitment to her faith.
"The question was asked of me, 'What do you think [of Clinton's faith]?' And I said, 'I know nothing about it.' I know nothing. I'm not saying that in a negative way," Trump told "CBS This Morning" co-host Norah O'Donnell. "But, you know, I've watched Hillary for a long time. I just don't know anything about her faith. I wouldn't question her faith, but somebody said to me, 'What do you think?' And I said, 'Don't know anything about it.'"
He said he doesn't think he did anything wrong.
After the meeting, eight evangelical leaders, including Tony Perkins, held a press conference.
"They were asked if they would endorse you. None of them said that they are endorsing you. Is that a concern?" O'Donnell asked.
"No, but Tony Perkins is a [Ted] Cruz guy. And you know, a 100 percent Cruz. And he's not for me. ... Hey, look, they had the largest gathering that they've ever had. I have had tremendous support. Franklin Graham was there and many other people were there," Trump said.
The presumptive GOP nominee acknowledged that he needs evangelical support to win the presidency, adding that he will get their support.
"I beat Cruz badly with evangelicals as you probably know, because you report it as well as anybody in the world," Trump said. "But I will get evangelical support. I didn't know about anybody. I thought almost everybody in the room -- we had over 1,000 people -- they expected a hundred and it ended up being over 1,000. I think most of that room -- you could have a couple of grandstanders like Tony Perkins, but I think most of that room -- I don't think, I know -- almost 95 percent of that room is in favor of Donald Trump. And if you look at the kind of numbers I get with evangelicals, we have tremendous, tremendous response from the evangelical community. And I won the election, I won the primaries largely based on the support of evangelicals."
There were also signs of turmoil in the Trump campaign this week, highlighted by the firing of campaign manager Corey Lewandowski Monday morning. Trump's daughter, Ivanka, had urged her father to dump Lewandowski.
"How influential were your children in saying, 'Dad, let's make some changes as we shift to the general election?'" O'Donnell asked.
"Well, my children are very smart and they're not much involved in the campaign. ... But I do rely on them from the standpoint of I like to listen to intelligent people, and they're very intelligent," Trump said. "Corey's done a great job. You know, I am a big fan of Corey. I like him a lot. He likes me a lot. ... But, you know, we are going into a different phase and I have a very good team of people. And I think we're gonna do very well, and I think the early polls are showing that we're gonna do very well."
"But was part of that your children saying, 'Look, we need to gear up. This is a national election. We've got a lot of battleground states. We need to be raising more money,'" O'Donnell asked.
"No, it really wasn't. I'd tell you if it was. It's no big deal." Trump said. "I mean, there's nothing wrong if they did say that. I mean, I read where my children didn't like Corey. They like him very much. I mean they ... felt bad. Two of 'em really felt badly about it, because they didn't want that. They like Corey."
In March, Trump said during a campaign rally in Tucson, Arizona, that Ivanka and his wife, Melania, were begging him to act more presidential.
"They say, please, now act a little more presidential. I said I can't until I finish my victory. I'll act presidential," Trump had said at the rally.
"What sort of advice were they giving you that they were begging you to be more presidential?" O'Donnell asked.
"Well, they love the country and they think I'm doing, obviously, very well and they're very proud and all that. But, you know, I only consider myself doing well if I win. 'Cause a lot of people said, 'Doesn't matter whether he wins or loses. What he has done has never been done before.' Because of, you know, where I am now," Trump said. "I said, 'No, it does matter. If I don't win, I don't consider it to be such a great achievement.' Because I really do. I mean this country has tremendous potential. We're being ripped off by everybody. This country has tremendous potential. And if we use this potential, we'll be stronger, bigger, better than ever before. You watch."
"You didn't answer my question," O'Donnell said, smiling.
"Well, they'd like me to be more presidential. I mean I think people would probably leave the stadiums. I mean I fill up these massive stadiums and if I stand there -- it's easy to be presidential. It's much harder to do what I do," Trump said.
"You know, in Houston the other day, Norah, we had thousands and thousands of people lined up forever trying to get into a packed convention center. ... Nobody's ever seen anything like it. They had helicopters covering. Now, if I stand up there and I do a teleprompter speech like Hillary does, the line would be no line and there'd be three people sitting in the front row. So you know, but being presidential for me is much easier than what I have to do to energize the people in the party so they get out and vote in November. And I think we've energized a lot of people. And you see it."
Trump added that he will be "very presidential when it's the right time."