WASHINGTON: For the first time since declaring his presidential run, Republican Donald Trump offered an extended apology to those who may have been hurt by his caustic comments, saying that he regrets some of what he’s said “in the heat of debate.”
“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,” the GOP nominee, reading from prepared text, said at a rally in Charlotte, N.C. “And believe it or not, I regret it, particularly where it may have caused personal pain.”
He added: “Too much is at stake for us to be consumed with these issues.” As the crowd cheered, Trump pledged to “always tell you the truth.”
The remarks came as Trump makes significant changes to a campaign that has struggled since the Democratic and GOP nominating conventions. Earlier Thursday, Trump moved to invest nearly $5 million in battleground state advertising.
The New York businessman’s campaign reserved TV ad space over the coming 10 days in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida and North Carolina, according to Kantar Media’s political ad tracker.
While Democrat Hillary Clinton has spent more than $75 million on advertising in 10 states since locking up her party’s nomination, Trump’s new investment marks his first of the general election season.
Election Day is 81 days away, with early voting in the first states set to begin in five weeks.
As Trump addressed law enforcement officers in North Carolina, Clinton met with law enforcement leaders in New York City.
She said the nation needs to work together to “repair the bonds of trust and respect” between police officers and communities and not stoke more divisions.
Clinton joined with chiefs of police days after Trump accused her of being “against the police.”
Clinton said Thursday at the start of the meeting that deadly shootings in Dallas, Baton Rouge, La., and Milwaukee show the need for respect between police officers and residents.
She said the country can’t ignore the challenges and “certainly we must not inflame them.”
Also Thursday, life-size naked statues of Trump greeted passers-by in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and Cleveland. The statues created by an artist in Cleveland are the brainchild of an activist collective called Indecline.
In a statement, the collective said the hope is that Trump “is never installed in the most powerful political and military position in the world.”
A statue in New York’s Union Square quickly drew the attention of people, many of whom posed for photos with it before it was removed by the city’s parks department.