Columbia, South Carolina (CNN) Donald Trump acknowledged Thursday that he "could have" signaled support for invading Iraq during a 2002 interview with Howard Stern. 
 
 "It was probably the first time I was asked that question," the GOP presidential front-runner told CNN's Anderson Cooper during a South Carolina town hall. "By the time the war started, I was against the war." 
 
 He also noted he "wasn't a politician" at the time of the interview. 
 
 Ahead of Saturday's South Carolina Republican primary, Trump has repeatedly blasted former President George W. Bush for launching the war. 
 
 But Buzzfeed posted Thursday Trump's interview with Stern, given on the first anniversary following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. When asked whether he would support an invasion, Trump responded: "Yeah, I guess so." 
 
 "You know, I wish the first time it was done correctly," he added in the interview. 
 
 Trump's criticism of the war could be a risky move in this military-dominated state. One man in the audience confronted Trump for saying that Bush had lied about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. 
 
 "I would probably say that something was going on," Trump said. "I don't know why he went in" to Iraq. 
 
 Trump vs. Pope Francis 
 
 Trump called Pope Francis a "wonderful guy" after the pontiff said Thursday the candidate is "not Christian" if he wants to deport undocumented immigrants and build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. 
 
 "I don't think this is a fight," Trump said. "I think he said something much softer than was originally reported by the media." 
 
 Trump added he would meet with the Pope "anytime he wants." 
 
 JUST WATCHED Donald Trump rips Pope Francis: I'm a Christian Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Donald Trump rips Pope Francis: I'm a Christian 00:53 
 
 Earlier at the town hall, Jeb Bush and John Kasich refused to be drawn into the debate between Trump and the Pope. 
 
 Kasich simply said he was "pro-Pope." 
 
 "This man has brought more sense of hope and more about the do's in life than the don'ts," Kasich said, referring to the Pope. "This guy has been so humble." 
 
 Bush, who is a devout Catholic, didn't criticize the Pope's comments. But he said he personally wouldn't "question people's Christianity." 
 
 "I think that's a relationship they have with their Lord and savior and themselves. So I just don't think it's appropriate to question Donald Trump's faith," Bush said. "He knows what his faith is." 
 
 Dominating South Carolina 
 
 Trump, who is dominating most South Carolina polls, continued to pound his closest competitor: Ted Cruz. 
 
 The billionaire businessman said the Texas senator "has a problem with the truth." 
 
 Trump appeared to side with Marco Rubio after the Florida senator's campaign accused Cruz's team earlier Thursday of photoshopping an image to make it appear as though Rubio is shaking hands with President Barack Obama. 
 
 "Oh, it was totally photoshopped," Trump said. 
 
 "They even made Marco a lot shorter than he is," Trump said, adding that this was "probably the thing that bothered him the most." 
 
 He quipped that other tactics the Cruz campaign has used in this election were "disgusting." 
 
 Trump has confounded many political observers with his propensity for colorful, unfiltered and inflammatory language as a candidate. When Cooper asked whether he would take on a different tone as president, Trump suggested he could easily switch back and forth between being politically correct -- and not. 
 
 "I can be more politically correct than anybody you've ever interviewed," Trump said. 
 
 He added: "I can do whatever I want. ...I deal with society. Society loves me." 
 
 Trump also shed light on his habits on the road, including his propensity to consume fast food from big chains like McDonald's and Burger King. 
 
 "I'm a very clean person. I like cleanliness," he said. "And I think you're better off going there than maybe some place where you have no idea where the food is coming from." 
 
 He said he recently ate Kentucky Fried Chicken. His verdict: "Not the worst thing in the world." 
 
 John Kasich 
 
 Kasich opened the CNN event by reflecting on a campaign trail moment that's quickly gone viral. At a forum in Clemson earlier in the day, a tearful young man confessed to Kasich that after suffering personal losses, he had gone through a very dark period in life. Now, he had found hope in the message that Kasich was taking to voters, he said, prompting the governor to hug the man. 
 
 "There are a lot of people out there who are lonely," Kasich told Cooper. "Could you believe that young man?" 
 
 He expressed frustration with the frenetic pace of presidential politics and noted how important it is to "slow down" and listen to people in need. 
 
 JUST WATCHED Kasich: Be present for others' wins and losses Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Kasich: Be present for others' wins and losses 01:36 
 
 "We've got to slow down," Kasich told Cooper. "You've got to celebrate other people's wins, and sometimes you've got to sit with them and cry." 
 
 Kasich is coming off a strong second-place showing in New Hampshire last week, but with his moderate message, there is little expectation that he will have a strong performance here during Saturday's GOP primary. 
 
 When one woman in the audience asked whether he would consider appointing any of his fellow White House hopefuls to his Cabinet, Kasich lightheartedly reminded her that it was much too early in the race. 
 
 "Well, look. I'm not going to be measuring like, the drapes. I've got a long way to go. We're really, really early," Kasich said. 
 
 He did, however, call one former candidate a "terrific guy" whom he would consider appointing to his administration: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. 
 
 "I like him very much," Kasich said, before saying about the rest of the field: "They all deserve an awful lot of respect. I don't want to fight with them." 
 
 JUST WATCHED Kasich: Losing parents to drunk driver changed my life Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Kasich: Losing parents to drunk driver changed my life 01:05 
 
 At the conclusion of his time at the CNN event, Kasich opened up about how losing his parents in a car accident forever shaped his outlook on life. 
 
 "They were at the Burger King because they got the second cup of coffee for free. That's the way the mailman and Mrs. Kasich lived," Kasich said about the day his parents died. "I went into a black hole." 
 
 He soon found God, Kasich said, though "the pain still comes." 
 
 "As a result of my parents' accident, it's allowed me to hug that boy," he added. 
 
 Jeb Bush 
 
 Bush shrugged off South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley's decision this week to endorse Rubio. 
 
 "I'm marking her down as neutral," Bush quipped. 
 
 Pressed by Cooper on how he can still convince voters here that he has momentum, Bush insisted that the momentum is there. 
 
 "I do have momentum if you look at the polls and if you look at the crowd sizes of our town hall meetings," Bush said. He pointed to the endorsement he won from South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham as a sign of his readiness to be president. 
 
 JUST WATCHED Jeb Bush: Embed U.S. troops to stop ISIS Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Jeb Bush: Embed U.S. troops to stop ISIS 01:38 
 
 "He could have supported two of his colleagues, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio," Bush said. "He chose me because he believes that I would be ready to serve on day one as commander in chief and as leader of the free world." 
 
 A University of South Carolina student told Bush that it seemed to him marijuana was one of the most frequently used drugs on campus, and asked the ex-governor for his stance on legalization. 
 
 Bush said he took issue with the term "recreational drug." 
 
 "The terminology is probably a little misleading," Bush said, "because of the potency of this generation of marijuana. It has major impacts -- neurological impacts." 
 
 He briefly mentioned his daughter's struggles with addiction, and said he believes the government should "focus a little bit more on treatment and a little less on punishment" of individuals convicted on drug-related charges. 
 
 One of the more personally revealing moments for Bush came when a questioner asked him to describe how his wife, Columba, has shaped him as a leader. Bush turned to his wife, who was sitting in the audience next to former first lady Barbara Bush, and said, "Sweetie, this is going to be your anniversary present." 
 
 He recalled meeting his wife as a young man in Mexico. 
 
 "Five o'clock. I can remember exactly where I was on the town square. I can remember exactly what she looked like to this day," Bush said. 
 
 The experience of falling for Columba -- "the most beautiful girl I had ever met in my life" -- Bush said, was like being hit with a "lightning bolt." ||||| (CNN) Thrusting himself into the combative 2016 presidential campaign, Pope Francis said Thursday that GOP front-runner Donald Trump "is not Christian" if he calls for the deportation of undocumented immigrants and pledges to build a wall between the United States and Mexico. 
 
 The Pope, who was traveling back to Rome from Mexico, where he urged the United States to address the "humanitarian crisis" on its southern border, did not tell American Catholics not to vote for Trump. 
 
 But Francis left little doubt where he stood on the polarizing issue of immigration reform. 
 
 "A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not the gospel," the Pope told journalists who asked his opinion on Trump's proposals to halt illegal immigration. 
 
 Trump immediately fired back, calling Francis' comments "disgraceful." 
 
 "No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man's religion or faith," he said in statement. Trump added that the government in Mexico, where Francis spent the past five days, has "made many disparaging remarks about me to the Pope." 
 
 "If and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS's ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the Pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been president," Trump said. 
 
 By Thursday evening, the GOP candidate had softened his tone. 
 
 "I don't like fighting with the Pope," Trump said at a GOP town hall debate in South Carolina hosted by CNN. "I like his personality; I like what he represents." 
 
 He added that he thinks Francis' remarks were "much nicer" than the media reported and that the Pope had been misled by Mexican officials. 
 
 Trump also said that the Pope has an "awfully big wall" himself at the Vatican. 
 
 That may be true, Catholic priests said, but Vatican City also has an awfully big door. 
 
 The tussle between Trump and Francis -- two outsized personalities who seldom shy from speaking their minds -- seems to have been building for some time. Before the Pope traveled to Mexico, Trump cast the pontiff as a political naif who "doesn't understand the dangers" at the U.S.-Mexican border. 
 
 Trump social media director Dan Scavino suggested the pontiff's comments were hypocritical. "Amazing comments from the Pope- considering Vatican City is 100% surrounded by massive walls," he tweeted. 
 
 Amazing comments from the Pope- considering Vatican City is 100% surrounded by massive walls. pic.twitter.com/g3iVLDVGe5 — Dan Scavino (@DanScavino) February 18, 2016 
 
 During the wide-ranging press conference aboard the papal plane, Francis also seemed to suggest that contraception may be used to prevent the transmission of the Zika virus and praised Saint John Paul II's "holy friendship" with a Polish woman 
 
 But it was his comments on Trump that seem sure to dominate the political conversation, perhaps handing a gift to Trump's GOP opponents and opening Francis to criticism that his papacy is too partisan and his policies too liberal. Polls indicate that while Democrats adore the Pope , Republicans view him a little less favorably. 
 
 Asked whether American Catholics should vote for Trump, Francis demurred. 
 
 "As far as what you said about whether I would advise to vote or not to vote, I am not going to get involved in that. I say only that this man is not Christian if he has said things like that." 
 
 The Pope appeared somewhat unaware of Trump's exact stance on illegal immigration, though, saying that he would give him "the benefit of the doubt" until he had heard exactly what the billionaire businessman had said. 
 
 The Rev. Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, said Tuesday that the Pope knows "Trump expresses himself in an expressive way," but "is not always up to date on the latest statements." 
 
 Trump has pledged to build an $8 billion wall along the United States' southern border and says he will force Mexico to pay the tab. Trump has also said that, if elected president, he would eject some 11 million undocumented immigrants from the country. 
 
 "You have people coming in, and I'm not just saying Mexicans -- I'm talking about people that are from all over that are killers and rapists, and they're coming into this country," Trump told CNN's Jake Tapper last June. 
 
 JUST WATCHED What it would take to build Trump's border wall Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH What it would take to build Trump's border wall 02:34 
 
 Before the Pope left for Mexico, Trump called Francis "a very political person" and suggested that the pontiff, who celebrated Mass Wednesday near the U.S.-Mexican border, was a pawn of the Mexican government. 
 
 The Pope made light of Trump's accusations. 
 
 "Thank God he said I was a politician because Aristotle defined the human person as 'animal politicus.' So at least I am a human person," he said. "As to whether I am a pawn, well, maybe, I don't know. I'll leave that up to your judgment and that of the people." 
 
 The White House weighs in 
 
 White House spokesman Josh Earnest, asked about Pope Francis' comments on Donald Trump, referred back to President Barack Obama's remarks last month at the National Prayer Breakfast. 
 
 He said Obama "talked about how his own personal Christian faith informed his view of the values and priorities that he has chosen to champion in the White House." 
 
 "A number of those values and priorities are not shared by Mr. Trump," Earnest said, before taking a jab at Trump's questioning of Obama's Christian faith. 
 
 "I will however extend to Mr. Trump the courtesy he has not extended to the President and not use this opportunity to call into question the kind of private personal conversations he is having with his God," Earnest said. 
 
 The Pope in Mexico 
 
 The Pope's comments on Trump came on his way home from an emotional trip to Mexico, where the first Latin American pontiff was greeted by boisterous crowds that often burst into songs or tears as he approached. 
 
 Celebrating Mass on Wednesday in Ciudad Juarez , a city just across the border from the United States, Francis delivered a stinging critique of leaders on both sides of the fence, calling the "forced migration" of thousands of Central Americans a "human tragedy" and "humanitarian crisis." 
 
 "Being faced with so many legal vacuums," the Pope said during his homily before a congregation of more than 200,000 people, "they get caught up in a web that ensnares and always destroys the poorest." 
 
 As he prepared to leave, Francis thanked Mexicans for opening their doors and their lives to him. "At times, I felt like weeping to see so much hope in a people who are suffering so much."
– Donald Trump is softening his rhetoric on Pope Francis after blasting the leader of the Catholic Church for suggesting the billionaire businessman's plan to build a wall along the US-Mexico border made him "not Christian." Trump said during a town hall event on CNN that he now believes the pope's remarks were "probably a little bit nicer" than first reported. Trump said he believes the pope has only heard one side of the story, as told by the Mexican government, and isn't aware of the problems Trump claims are caused by a porous border. Trump also said he has great respect for Pope Francis. Still, he couldn't help but offer a dig, noting that, "He's got an awfully big wall at the Vatican." During the University of South Carolina town hall, Trump, who has long claimed to have opposed the invasion of Iraq, was also asked about BuzzFeed's unearthing of a 2002 interview in which Howard Stern asked him whether he supported the invasion. "Yeah, I guess so," he responded at the time, according to the audio. "I wish the first time in was done correctly." At the town hall, he told Anderson Cooper he didn't remember the conversation, but he said, "I mean, I could have said that. ... It was probably the first time anybody asked me that question," adding that his opposition was early, "even if it was a little bit after the war." More from the town hall: Trump said that if he's elected to the White House, he plans to send cease-and-desist letters or similar threats to countries he believes are giving the US raw deals. He said he would send letters "to China to stop ripping us off. I would be sending them to other countries to stop ripping us off. I'd send them to Mexico." John Kasich described how his life had been shaped by the day his parents were killed by a drunk driver. "They were at the Burger King because they got the second cup of coffee for free. That's the way the mailman and Mrs. Kasich lived," he said. "I went into a black hole" after they died in 1987, he added, but he recovered and soon found God. Jeb Bush insisted that he still has momentum "if you look at the polls and if you look at the crowd sizes of our town hall meetings," and he said the endorsement from Sen. Lindsey Graham signals that he's ready to serve from Day 1 as "commander in chief and as leader of the free world."