Donald Trump Conducts Rare News Conference, and It Turns Testy
But the tensest moments came in an exchange with the NBC reporter Peter Alexander, who repeatedly tried to read Mr. Trump’s quotations from an old interview with Tim Russert in which he described himself as “pro-choice.” That footage is being used in ads by a “super PAC” supporting Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, with whom Mr. Trump is closely competing, and by the Cruz campaign. Mr. Cruz, he said, is a “wreck.”
Mr. Trump repeatedly cut off Mr. Alexander as he tried to read the quotation from the 1999 interview. “Excuse me, excuse me,” Mr. Trump said, talking over Mr. Alexander.
Later, when Mr. Alexander tried to ask again, Mr. Trump demanded to know if the reporter would apologize. Mr. Alexander said that he was sorry the candidate felt he didn’t represent the statement correctly, but that he was trying to read it.
“Forget you,” Mr. Trump said, cutting him off.
It was reminiscent of the news conferences that another pugnacious New Yorker, Rudolph W. Giuliani, held when he was the city’s mayor.
.. Later, when another reporter asked why it was a cheap shot for Mr. Sasse to ask about his infidelity when Mr. Trump had raised Bill Clinton’s transgressions as fair game, the candidate replied that in fact it wasn’t a cheap shot.
“I’m a religious person,” Mr. Trump then said.