Trump echoes supporter's vulgar insult of Ted Cruz
MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has made cursing a campaign staple for him on the stump. Most speeches will sprinkle in a "damn," or a "crap."
At a September speech in New Hampshire, Trump called Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush's friendship "political bulls***."
But at Monday night's rally in Manchester, Trump ratcheted up his practice of keeping television censors (and reporters) on their toes with what might be his most off-color profanity yet: He repeated a woman calling Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, "a p****."
Trump was in the middle of a riff about his answer on waterboarding at Saturday's GOP debate, when he made light of Cruz's answer on the same question.
"They asked Ted Cruz, serious question, 'Well what do you think of waterboarding?' Is it okay?" Trump said. "And honestly I thought he'd say absolutely. And he didn't."
A woman interrupted. Trump pointed at her.
"She just said a terrible thing. You know what she said? Shout it out cause I don't wanna," he said.
Then Trump mockingly reprimanded her.
"I never expect to hear that from you again!"
And just in case the audience didn't know what she said: "She said he's a p****. That's terrible. Terrible!"
The crowd at the Verizon Wireless Arena erupted -- some in shock, some in laughter. Trump paused and walked away from the podium for a couple seconds.
It is very likely that Donald Trump is the only presidential candidate in the history of American politics to ever use that word in the midst of a stump speech.
On MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Tuesday, Trump explained why he said it aloud.
"The place went wild -- standing ovation -- you know you're talking about close to 5,000 people - standing ovation, went totally wild," he said. "And all I was doing is repeating because people couldn't hear it. So I was doing everybody a favor."
It was Trump's final rally before New Hampshire voters head to the polls for the first primary in the country. Trump has been beseeching his supporters to turn out -- even joking that if anyone intends not to vote for him, not to turn out at all.
The evening's rally was the fourth of the day for Trump. Earlier, Trump addressed the Manchester Rotary Club, where he continued his pitch -- however, with some tweaks. In casting the Iranian nuclear deal, Trump said that North Korea should have been dealt with as part of negotiations with Iran.
"Iran is the number one partner of North Korea," Trump said. "So you say why didn't you put that in the deal? You gotta take care of the problem we have. Put that in the deal. But they don't put that in the deal. We have people that don't -- really -- we have people that don't know what they're doing."
Trump also gave some specifics to how far he would go in reducing the size of the federal government -- starting with the Department of Education. He took a question from a woman who asked him specifically about what role the department should play in education.
"As far as I'm concerned, from a federal stand point, there may be a little bit of involvement just to keep overall sanity," Trump said. "You know, you want to make sure it works properly. We're talking about 90, 95 percent getting rid of. Just a coordination factor."
At every one of his stops, Trump went out of his way to bash Bush.
Here was a sampling of some of the words he used to describe the former Florida governor at just one of them -- at an intimate stop in Derry: "lightweight," "stiff," "not smart enough."
In front of the Manchester Rotary Club, Trump went as far as to even say that Bush winning the nomination would be an embarrassment to the Republican party.
It was the busiest day of campaigning that Trump has had all election cycle. Along with four stops, Trump had at least seven interviews sprinkled throughout the day with various television and radio networks. He showed up late to the evening rally, due to inclement weather. New Hampshire was slammed by a snowstorm that caused icy roads and headaches for drivers all over the Granite state.
If the poll numbers hold, Trump is in prime position to win the New Hampshire primary.
A CNN/WMUR poll released on Monday -- the final one before the debate -- shows Trump maintaining his lead at 31 percent. Rubio is in second place at 17 percent, just more than half of Trump's percentage.
CBS News' Katiana Krawchenko contributed to this report.