By Arun Kumar
Washington, Aug 28 (IANS): As Donald Trump surge continues flummoxing pundits and pollsters, the Republican frontrunner invited a voter to touch his hair to prove it was real - saying so was his campaign to win the party nomination.
The real estate mogul Thursday invited Mary Margaret Bannister at Thursday's Upstate Chamber Presidential Series in Greenville, South Carolina, to come up on stage to touch his hair in front of 1,400 people. After a brief feel and laugh, Bannister confirmed to the attendees and the rest of the world on live television that Trump did, in fact, have real hair and was not wearing a toupee as alleged by New York Times.
"To me it looked real. It was not a toupee," Bannister told CNN. "When I approached him, he kind of leaned toward me, put his head toward me, and asked me to touch his hair."
She said she was careful not to pull Trump's do, and that she was, in fact, able to see his roots.
"Trump called on Bannister randomly and swears he's never met her before, so in theory, Bannister was an impartial toupee-tester, or follicle feeler, per se," CNN said.
Bannister described the situation as comical and entertaining. But will her hairy encounter with Trump now cause her to vote for "The Donald?" She still wants to hear more from him, she said.
"He is an interesting man to listen to," Bannister added. "He keeps the crowd intrigued by what he has to say."
Meanwhile, Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton compared Republican presidential candidates who hold conservative views on abortion and women's reproductive rights to "terrorist groups".
"Now, extreme views about women, we expect that from some of the terrorist groups, we expect that from people who don't want to live in the modern world, but it's a little hard to take from Republicans who want to be the president of the United States," Clinton said.
"Yet they espouse out of date, out of touch policies. They are dead wrong for 21st century America. We are going forward, we are not going back," she said in a a Cleveland speech on Thursday.
Republicans were quick to demand an apology. "For Hillary Clinton to equate her political opponents to terrorists is a new low for her flailing campaign," said Allison Moore, press secretary for the Republican National Committee.
A national poll released Thursday showed Clinton leading the Democratic field with 45 percent support, as well as topping several Republican candidates in head-to-head matchups.