PHILADELPHIA-Donald Trump reiterated his call for the U.S. to pull back from its commitment to NATO and said the Republican leader of the Senate was wrong to call the proposal "a rookie mistake."
"He's 100 percent wrong. OK?" Trump said in an interview aired Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." "He's 100 percent wrong if he said that."
Trump shocked many in the country's defense and foreign policy establishment when he said last week that as commander in chief, he would not automatically come to the defense of America's NATO allies if they were attacked.
The assurance of such all-for-one assistance is a fundamental underpinning of the defense agreement between the U.S and key allies.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who had given a less-than-rousing speech in support of Trump's nomination at the Republican National Convention, responded by suggesting the remark showed the political neophyte's inexperience and the need for guidance from seasoned lawmakers.
"Frankly it's sad," Trump said. "We have NATO, and we have many countries that aren't paying for what they're supposed to be paying, which is already too little, but they're not paying anyway. And we're giving them a free ride or giving them a ride where they owe us tremendous amounts of money. "
Trump defended a portion of his convention speech in which he painted an unsparingly bleak portrait of the country and suggested he alone could fix it.
He said he was simply comparing himself to Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee.
"We know Hillary and we look at her record," Trump said. "Her record has been a disaster. And I am running against Hillary. It's not like I'm running against the rest of the world."
"I know people that are very, very capable that could do a very good job, but they could never get elected," Trump said.