US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has accused President Barack Obama of founding the so-called Islamic State group.
Addressing supporters at a rally in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the real estate tycoon said the jihadist group is "honouring President Obama."
"He is the founder of ISIS," Mr Trump said, using a term for the IS group.
"He's the founder of ISIS, okay?" he added. "He's the founder! He founded ISIS."
The billionaire went on to criticise his Democratic rival for the White House.
"And I would say, the co-founder would be crooked Hillary Clinton," he said.
Mr Trump has suffered what critics insist is a long string of missteps that have marred his campaign since he officially won the nomination last month.
Earlier yesterday, Mrs Clinton sternly warned Mr Trump about his "casual inciting" of violence, saying he "crossed the line" after he caused a firestorm by suggesting that people who support gun rights could take action to stop her from appointing US Supreme Court justices if elected president.
Trump seeks to raise fresh ethical questions about Clinton
Mr Trump tried to raise ethical questions about Mrs Clinton and criticised her for letting the father of the Orlando nightclub shooter sit behind her at a rally.
At campaign events in Florida, and earlier in Abingdon, Virginia, Mr Trump sought to rally his campaign after the setback over his remarks about gun rights' supporters.
He drew attention to the emergence of emails from Mrs Clinton's use of a private server when she was secretary of state during President Barack Obama's first term, from 2009-2013.
A conservative watchdog group, Judicial Watch, obtained the release through court order, of 44 email exchanges that it said were not previously turned over to the State Department.
Among them was a 2009 email in which Doug Band, a former official at the Clinton Foundation charity run by former President Bill Clinton, directed two Hillary Clinton aides to put Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire and Clinton Foundation donor Gilbert Chagoury in touch with a State Department official dealing with Lebanon.
The Clinton campaign has dismissed the new emails as having nothing to do with Clinton or the foundation's work.
Mr Trump, who is trailing in many polls with three months to go until the 8 November election, said the new batch of emails suggested a "pay for play" scheme.
"You're not allowed to do it," he said. "It's illegal."
In addition, he had sharp comments about the seating of Seddique Mateen, the father of Omar Mateen, who shot to death 49 people at an Orlando nightclub in June, behind Mrs Clinton at a rally in Kissimee, Florida.
"Wasn't it terrible when the father of the animal who killed the wonderful people was sitting with a big smile on his face right behind Hillary Clinton?" he said.
Mr Trump said he believed that people who sit behind the candidate at rallies are close to the campaign.
Reporters noticed that sitting behind Mr Trump at the event in Fort Lauderdale was former US Representative Mark Foley, who resigned from Congress in 2006 after allegations surfaced that he had sent suggestive emails and sexually explicit instant messages to teenage boys who had been congressional pages.
Mr Foley told the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel he has been along-time friend of Mr Trump's and has found him to be "a different breed of leader and a different breed of candidate."
Mr Trump sharply criticised the news media for the way it handled a comment he made in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Tuesday suggesting gun rights supporters could take action against Mrs Clinton.
"I would actually say that the media is almost as crooked as crooked Hillary Clinton," Mr Trump said.
He drew harsh criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike because some took his remarks to mean he was inciting violence despite Mr Trump's insistence he was only urging more people to rally votes against Mrs Clinton.
