Donald Trump's campaign manager fired back Wednesday at an ad produced by the pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC Priorities USA taking on the Republican nominee's fitness to be commander in chief.
The 30-second ad, out Tuesday, is titled "I Love War." It features Trump uttering the phrase, "I love war, in a certain way," at a rally last November, and features snippets of him remarking that he "knows more about ISIS than the generals do" and calling "nuclear, the power, the devastation ... very important to me."
"'I love war,' putting nuclear weapons on the table. The Clinton camp says that's irresponsible," ABC's George Stephanopoulos remarked to Kellyanne Conway at the start of their interview on "Good Morning America."
Conway responded that what is actually "irresponsible" is "taking little, cherry-picking little snippets of what he said and not giving the full context of the sentence, let alone the speech."
"This woman was secretary of state for four years. And I think the reason she's struggling in the polls, part is because they aren't really fond of that record and she will be held account for that record," Conway said, ripping into Clinton over her recent polling troubles. "She's actually been in control of many aspects of our national security and our troops and our defense, and I think that given all of her advantages, including her super PAC, including her campaign having spent over $200 million, most in paid advertising, one wonders why is she not at 50, 60 percent in the polls. Why isn’t she at 60, 65 percent among women? Hillary Clinton has a Hillary Clinton problem."
Asked what Trump meant when he said "I love war," Conway demurred.
"I'd have to see the entire snippet there, but obviously many commanders in chief have made the very difficult decision to go to war," Conway responded. "You have Hillary Clinton as secretary of state calling a Russia reset that didn't work, she was wrong on Libya, she was wrong on Syria, she was certainly wrong on Benghazi."
Conway went on to say that she was "glad" Clinton has "come out of hiding ... because people deserve a conversation with the candidates."
"You don't just do ads against each other. And we do very few ads," Conway said, touting Trump's recent campaign events and endorsements, including the 88 retired generals and admirals who endorsed him Tuesday, and, Conway added, "he did a military preparedness town hall in Virginia, then he was in North Carolina and he got to talk to the voters directly."
Those who make a study of what the Trump mangle does to the English language will appreciate his response to a question from the audience on his plan to defeat Islamic State and what the generals might suggest:
"When I do come up with a plan that I like - and that perhaps agrees with mine, or maybe doesn't - I may love what the generals come back with," Trump said.
"I have a plan, but I don't want to - look, I have a very substantial chance of winning. Make America great again. We're going to make America great again. I have a substantial chance of winning. If I win, I don't want to broadcast to the enemy exactly what my plan is. Let me tell you, if I like, maybe, a combination of my plan and the generals' plan, or the generals' plan - if I like their plan, Matt, I'm not going to call you up and say, 'Matt, we have a great plan.' This is what Obama does."
