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Trump says he will be the ‘great unifier’

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures as he addresses supporters during a campaign stop at the Trump National Doral Miami resort today in Doral

Donald Trump appeared undeterred Sunday in the face of new polls in Iowa showing him falling behind retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, stressing that he’s the “unifier” the country needs.

A Des Moines Register poll showed Carson leading Trump by 9 percentage points in the state.

Trump, who for months had led the crowded field of Republican presidential candidates, said he would bring bipartisanship to Washington at a time of immense polarization.

Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Trump focused on the battle last week between Republicans on the House Select Committee on Benghazi and Hillary Rodham Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, who testified before the panel for nearly 11 hours.

“The level of hatred between Republicans and Democrats was unbelievable. … I’ve never seen anything like it,” Trump said. “I’m going to unify. This country is totally divided. Barack Obama has divided this country unbelievably. And it’s all, it’s all hatred, what can I tell you. I’ve never seen anything like it. … I’ve gotten along with Democrats and I’ve gotten along with Republicans. And I said, that’s a good thing.”

Trump, whose appeal as a political outsider has helped his candidacy flourish, said that if elected, he’d be a “great unifier for our country.”

For Trump, criticism of both parties is nothing new.

He’s relentlessly assailed his rivals, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, for being “low-energy.”

“We need high-energy people,” Trump said. “I think Ben Carson is a very low-energy person. Actually, I think Ben Carson is lower energy than Jeb, if you want to know the truth. We need strong energy.”

Moreover, in recent days, Trump has questioned Carson’s Christian faith — something that’s appealed to evangelical voters in Iowa. Carson is a Seventh-day Adventist.

“I’m Presbyterian. Boy, that’s down the middle of the road folks, in all fairness,” Trump said in Florida. “I mean, Seventh-day Adventist, I don’t know about. I just don’t know about.”

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