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Trump slams Kasich, media at Ohio rally
11/23/2015   By Lisa Hagen | The Hill
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Within the first few minutes of his speech Monday night, real estate mogul Donald Trump came out swinging at a primary opponent’s low standing in the polls and mocked the media’s coverage of his events.

At a rally in Columbus, Ohio, the Republican presidential candidate, who frequently alludes to polls, once again touted that he’s leading the pack and specifically took aim at Ohio Governor John Kasich on his home turf.

“Your governor is only 2 [percent]. What happened?” Trump said to a mix of cheers and boos.

The two presidential candidates have been recently sparring after a super-PAC supporting Kasich launched a $2.5 million ad campaign against Trump. A day later, GOP operatives also announced a “guerilla campaign” to take down Trump.

According to the latest RealClearPolitics average of national polls, Trump leads with about 28 percent, while Kasich trails far behind with nearly 3 percent.

“We’re a silent majority who’s no longer silent,” Trump said.

Speaking to a packed convention center, Trump lambasted the media for not showing the entirety of the crowds watching his speeches. He challenged the cameras in the back of the room to pan out while also noting the number of people outside who weren’t able to watch from the main room.

“Look at all those cameras back there,” Trump repeated to a chorus of boos. “Can you believe this? Look! Unbelievable.”

Trump said to the audience, “You won’t become stars tonight, but you’ll become stars when we turn around the country.”

Trump then pivoted to foreign policy, saying, “We’ve become soft. We’ve become weak. We’ve become the laughingstock all over the world."

He said that a terrorist attack like the recent one in Paris could have been prevented if those people were armed, earning him one of the biggest applause lines of the night.

Trump doubled down on a comment he made during an interview Sunday about permitting waterboarding as a form of torture.

“You bet your ass I would … in a heartbeat,” Trump said, blasting critics who knock its effectiveness. “If it doesn’t work, they deserve it anyway for what they do to us.”

Trump also maintained his previous comments that some people in Jersey City, N.J., were cheering on 9/11, reading as proof an excerpt from a 2001 Washington Post story that was published a week after the terrorist attacks.

“They'll call it a typo, but they'll try to deny it,” Trump said. “Thousands of people believe me because they saw it.”

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