Trump says he wants to be himself in Thursday debate
Donald Trump is seeking to lower expectations for an upcoming debate in which he is the primary topic.
"I'm not a debater," Trump told CBS' Face The Nation on Sunday. "I don't stand up and debate like these politicians."
Trump and some of his Republican opponents began tuning up for Thursday's clash with a series of Sunday show interviews dominated by talk of the billionaire businessman's rise to the top of the GOP field.
In three appearances, Trump used the prospect of the debate to continue attacking the kinds of politicians he says have failed the United States.
"These politicians -- I always say, they're all talk, no action," Trump said on ABC's This Week. "They debate all the time. They go out and they debate every night. I don't debate."
On NBC's Meet The Press, Trump said that he wants to be himself and not be "unreal" when he hits the debate stage Thursday in Cleveland.
"I understand you have nine other people that are going to be shooting at me," Trump said. "And that may be true. Maybe not."
Trump's opponents, meanwhile, said he lacks the experience and the specifics needed to address the nation's problems.
The back-and-forth came as yet another poll shows him atop the Republican field.
The New York-based businessman is favored by 19% of Republican primary voters, according to the new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is second at 15%, followed by former Florida governor Jeb Bush at 14% and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson at 10%.
All other Republican candidates are in single digits.
Only the top ten candidates as determined by a series of national polls will appear in the main debate sponsored by Fox News.
That group seems likely to include Trump, Walker, Bush, Carson, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee.
The ninth and tenth spots appear to be a battle among New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former Texas governor Rick Perry, and former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum.
Other candidates -- Carly Fiorina, Bobby Jindal, Lindsey Graham, George Pataki, and Jim Gilmore -- are fighting to get into the top ten. Fox News will also sponsor a smaller debate Thursday afternoon for those candidates who do not make the prime time event.
Many of those other White House hopefuls also hit the Sunday shows to face questions about Trump's surge. Among them:
-- Christie, on CNN's State of the Union, said the campaign will determine how serious a contender Trump will wind up being. "Anybody can do well for a month in this business, especially if you have talent and you have personality," he said. "And Donald has both those things. So, let's see how it goes over the course of time.”
-- Carson, on NBC's Meet The Press, said he will be helped by Trump's candidacy in the long run "because fewer people are talking about my lack of political experience now." He also said "it's an erroneous thought that only political experience is expedient."
-- Kasich, appearing on Fox News Sunday, declined to discuss Trump in detail, saying he preferred to talk about his own record as Ohio's governor and as a former congressman.
-- Perry, also on Fox, did not back down from a past comment that Trump is a "cancer on conservatism," saying the businessman has held Democratic positions in the past, such as favoring single payer health insurance. Perry said he will "push back" when Trump makes erroneous statements on immigration and other issues.
-- Huckabee, on CBS's Face The Nation, said the debate moderators also face a challenge "to divvy this up fairly, make it even."
-- Paul, appearing on CNN, said Trump represents a "vein of anger" that people feel about Washington politicians, but the debate will spark talk about "who has the ideas that would fix the country?"