Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump admitted at a rally on Thursday night that he may have made remarks that caused personal offense. Some reporters at the rally commented that the admission was met with surprise from his audience, as it represents a departure from his usual style that can safely be described as astonishing.
He told his understandably stunned supporters at the event in North Carolina:
“Sometimes in the heat of debate and speaking on a multitude of issues, you don’t choose the right words or you say the wrong thing. I have done that. And, believe it or not, I regret it. I do regret it. Particularly where it may have caused personal pain.”
It seems that his new campaign advisers Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway, who were only officially unveiled on Wednesday, have gone to work at lightning speed to shore up his rapidly crumbling campaign.
As well as issuing the unprecedented apology, and despite lambasting opponents in the past for reading from a script instead of shooting from the hip, it was also significant that he read his entire speech from an autocue (teleprompter). Not very well, but he did it.
In a busy round of Thursday morning interviews with CNN, CBS This Morning and other channels, Conway promised that Trump would not lose his basic style – which she politely described as “freewheeling” – but he would maintain this newly disciplined approach.
She also promised that, from now, the Trump campaign will move away from personalities and insults, and focus more on issues that matter to the voter, particularly women. She told one interviewer:
“The way to speak to women and all Americans is through issues. We’ve got to get away from this content-free campaign and on to the substance.”
Whether or not Trump sticks to that promise and plays nicely from now does, of course, remain to be seen. But why should we doubt him? After all, he followed his apology with a reassuring pledge:
“I can promise you this: I will always tell you the truth.”
Watch that extraordinary apology here.
Featured image: Michael Vadon via Flickr/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License
