Donald Trump Defends Tea Party to Left Leaning Crowd: ‘I Love the Tea Party’

Isaac Brekken/Getty Images
Isaac Brekken/Getty Images

GOP frontrunner Donald Trump took up for the Tea Party to a Left-leaning crowd at the No Labels Convention in New Hampshire Monday morning.

“I love the Tea Party,” Trump responded when an audience member asked about his thoughts on the Tea Party and the House Freedom Caucus, as well as the possibility of a government shutdown over defunding Planned Parenthood.

“These are people in all fairness, these are people that love this country. They do love this country and they want the country to be great,” Trump defended. “They don’t want Planned Parenthood funded… I understand that.”

The crowd booed, but Trump didn’t budge. He said he agreed with the Tea Party.

Bryan McCormack, Executive Director at the Cornerstone Policy Research, a pro-family organization,  said he didn’t attend due to the ideology of those attending.

“We at Cornerstone decided not attend the No Labels conference due to the overwhelmingly liberal subject matter. We have to start looking at these groups for what they are, an infiltration of conservative ideals under the guise of a collaborative spirit,” McCormack told Breitbart News.

Trump got another tough question from a female audience member saying she didn’t think he was a “friend to women.” She asked if under a President Trump women would make as much as men and if she can control what happens to her body.

“You’re going to make the same if you do as good a job. And I happen to be prolife. I’m pro-life,” Trump stated.

“I respect women incredibly, I have had women working for me,” Trump added. “I have given women more opportunity than I would say virtually anybody in the construction industry.”

The No Labels Problem Solving Convention hosted by Jon Huntsman and Joe Lieberman wants to have a leader who is willing to sit down and work with the other party, “and agree to big goals to unite the country: create 25 million new jobs over the next 10 years; balance the federal budget by 2030; secure Social Security and Medicare for another 75 years; and make America energy secure by 2024.”

Trump laughed at the idea of balancing the federal budget by 2030, saying, “2030? That’s an easy one!”

He said he would get the $19 trillion dollar deficit under control by cutting government and creating jobs. Trump said the government has “tremendous cutting to do. You have a Department of Education that’s totally out of control,” he added that the Environmental Protection Agency isn’t doing its job either.

Trump also reiterated to many college students in the audience that creating jobs — in addition to cutting the deficit — is part of his plan to tackle the issue of student loans.

Fellow GOP presidential candidates as well as Democratic presidential candidates were invited to attend the event.

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