Earlier this evening, CNN’s Don Lemon interviewed Donald Trump about the debate on Fox News Channel last night, and set off another Trump-related tempest. After noting that Kelly pushed Trump during the debate, and that she “pushed a lot of people” besides Trump, Lemon asked, “What is it with you and Megyn Kelly?” Trump’s reply was, er … colorful, to say the least [emphasis mine]:
TRUMP: Well, I just don’t respect her as a journalist, I have no respect for her. I don’t think she’s very good, I think she’s highly overrated. But when I came out there, you know — what am I doing? I’m not getting paid for this. I go out there, and they start saying this stuff [garbled]. But you know, I didn’t know there’d be 24 million people. I knew it was going to be a big crowd because I get crowds, I get ratings. They call me the ratings machine. So I have, you know, she gets out and she starts asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions, and you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her … wherever. But in my opinion, she was off base.
Kelly did ask Trump tough questions in last night’s debate, but she asked tough questions of Marco Rubio on abortion too, and of other candidates on stage as well. As the front-runner, Trump should have expected tough questions, especially given his track record of supporting nearly every progressive idea at one time or another, including Hillary Clinton being President. Kelly also asked Trump about his remarks about women, which appears to have particularly rankled him — and pushed him into validating Kelly’s premise in asking those questions in the first place. After all, it’s not often when a major party candidate takes a shot at a woman by reminding everyone of her menstrual cycle. I’m certain that will really impress women about their place in the Republican Party.
Trump was scheduled to speak at the Red State Gathering tomorrow, in the final slot at the event. Not long after these remarks, event organizer Erick Erickson announced that he had withdrawn the invitation:
I have rescinded my invitation to Mr.Trump. While I have tried to give him great latitude, his remark about Megyn Kelly was a bridge too far
That will undoubtedly anger some Trump supporters, but after last night’s debate performance and his thin-skinned whining afterward, I wonder if that group wasn’t already in decline. This might fire up the die-hard Trump troops, but suggesting that a journalist went after his target-rich record only because she was menstruating should be a disqualifier for most voters. It’s vastly worse than anything Todd Akin said, and will almost certainly have media outlets demanding responses from the other Republican candidates. It’s practically tailor-made for Democrats to hoist up the Republican War On Women banner, especially Hillary Clinton.
Get ready for plenty of Team Trump dog-in-the-manger, sour-grapes quotes in the morning, if not overnight. There may be some legitimate anger among a small group of RSG15 attendees tomorrow who wanted to see Trump at this event, but Erick has a solid case for not wanting to have this overshadow the event tomorrow, with more presidential candidates on hand to make their pitches. Erick will almost certainly address this in the morning, and we’ll see what the fallout is over the rest of the day.
Update: Carly Fiorina appears to be the first Republican candidate to respond to Trump’s remarks, perhaps fittingly so (via Twitchy):
That’s interesting, because Fiorina actually deflected a Trump question at her presser today at RSG15 by asking why the media wasn’t calling out Obama for his offensive comments about opponents of the Iran deal. Not this time, apparently.
But I also think that while Mr. Trump resonates with a lot of people with his bluntness, including me to a degree, there are just real lines of decency a person running for President should not trust.
His comment was inappropriate. It is unfortunate to have to disinvite him. But I just don’t want someone on stage who gets a hostile question from a lady and his first inclination is to imply it was hormonal. It just was wrong.
I have invited Megyn Kelly to attend in Donald Trump’s place tomorrow night.
Well, that would be interesting. We’ll see if she can swing that.
A woman who gets offended by references to menstruation is too much of a pussy to be President.
How many women voters, GOP or indy, really want to support a guy who is making crude remarks about a woman interviewer "bleeding from...somewhere" just because she lobbed a few hard questions?
This is just Teh Donald, unscripted in all his glory.
Even so, that happened two days ago so it is old news.
Red State Gathering invited candidates. Huckabee, Walker, Cruz, Bush and Trump.
The others are all coming. Trump is disinvited and his slot has been given to Megan Kelly to make a speech. Trump was the big evening speaker, the headliner really, and would have spoke in the College Football Hall of Fame (the others are at some lesser hall for the morning afternoon speeches).
You suppose she will show up on stage, bleeding from...somewhere?
Well ... did you see or read his comment, "You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes" prior to your later question?
He said: "So I have, you know, she gets out and she starts asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions, and you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her … wherever.
Exactly where is this "whereever" that blood is coming out of her? It seems it wasn't her eyes because Donald wasn't satisfied with that, he went to say she was bleeding from "somewhere" else but didn't finish his thought.
So where is this "somewhere" that Megan Kelly (much as I dislike her) is bleeding from?
Maybe we should recall what her question was about Trump's record of namecalling over the years.
ABC:
GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump said Friday he can't recall using words such as "dog," ''fat" and "disgusting" to insult women he believes have slighted him, but such language litters his Twitter feed and other public comments he's made for years.
The issue took center stage at the first Republican debate of the 2016 campaign for president, when Fox News moderator Megyn Kelly asked Trump about his use of such language and whether it reflected the "temperament of a man we should elect as president."
Trump largely dismissed Kelly's question at the debate, but on Friday he went directly after her.
Before dawn, he had retweeted a post calling Kelly a "bimbo." The post was later deleted, but on Friday evening Trump called Kelly a "lightweight."
"She's not very tough and not very sharp," Trump said during a phone interview on CNN. "I don't respect her as a journalist."
Referring to Kelly's questions during the debate, Trump said, "There was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever."
Citing that remark, conservative commentator Erick Erickson said he was withdrawing his invitation for Trump to appear at his RedState Gathering in Atlanta on Saturday. "I just don't want someone on stage who gets a hostile question from a lady and his first inclination is to imply it was hormonal," Erickson wrote on the RedState website Friday night. "It just was wrong."
Trump's campaign responded: "This is just another example of weakness through being politically correct. For all of the people who were looking forward to Mr. Trump coming, we will miss you. Blame Erick Erickson, your weak and pathetic leader."
In a series of interviews earlier Friday on network television, the billionaire businessman questioned whether he had actually used the words as Kelly had alleged during the debate.
"You know, some of the statements she made about the women, I don't recognize those words whatsoever," Trump said on ABC's "Good Morning America." ''We're going to take a very serious look at it."
Trump has a long history of lobbing insults at those he feels have treated him unfairly, and advises those who buy his books to do the same.
"For many years I've said that if someone screws you, screw them back," he wrote in "Trump: How to Get Rich." ''When somebody hurts you, just go after them as viciously and as violently as you can."
When doing so, he has repeatedly targeted women and their physical appearance.
"Rosie O'Donnell's disgusting, I mean both inside and out. You take a look at her, she's a slob. She talks like a truck driver," he said in 2006 during an interview with "Entertainment Tonight." ''I'd look her right in that fat, ugly face of hers, I'd say, 'Rosie, you're fired'" from her television show, "The View."
During the debate, Trump acknowledged making such comments — but only about O'Donnell. When Kelly said Trump's comments had gone beyond O'Donnell and asked about his use of such insults on Twitter, Trump replied that he didn't "have time for total political correctness."
A review of Trump's writings, televised interviews and Twitter feed show he's long used harsh language to describe women — and occasionally men.
In tweets sent last year, Trump called Huffington Post editor Arianna Huffington "a dog who wrongfully comments on me" and said she is "ugly both inside and out!"
In 2012, Trump wrote on Twitter of singer Bette Midler: "But whenever she sees me, she kisses my ass. She's disgusting."
Trump has also said the same of men. "Little @MacMiller, I'm now going to teach you a big boy lesson about lawsuits and finance. You ungrateful dog!" he tweeted in 2013 at a rapper who wrote a song titled "Donald Trump."
And to former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank in 2011: "Barney Frank looked disgusting — nipples protruding — in his blue shirt before Congress. Very very disrespectful."
During the debate, Kelly also referenced a boardroom scene from Trump's NBC's realty show, "Celebrity Apprentice," in which Trump was told by one contestant that a female teammate had gotten down on her knees to beg.
"That must be a pretty picture, you dropping to your knees," Trump said in response.
In the book, Trump declared that, "All the women on 'The Apprentice' flirted with me — consciously or unconsciously. That's to be expected."
And he had this to say about women's victories on the show: "It's certainly not groundbreaking news that the early victories by the women on 'The Apprentice' were, to a very large extent, dependent on their sex appeal."
On some occasions Trump appears to have recognized he's gone too far. In April, he retweeted, then deleted, a tweet that read, "If Hillary Clinton can't satisfy her husband what makes her think she can satisfy America?"
Now Teh Donald says he must investigate whether he has ever said anything offensive.
Maybe he can hire the Sheriff Joe Posse to do that, just like he hired them to investigate Obama's birth certificate. That would be yuge and very classy. Just like Donald himself.
On some occasions Trump appears to have recognized he's gone too far. In April, he retweeted, then deleted, a tweet that read, "If Hillary Clinton can't satisfy her husband what makes her think she can satisfy America?"
Very crude but an accurate assessment.
His comments on attractive women winning on his show is also accurate. Do you think Meg Kelly would have a plum job at Fox and her time slot if she was smart, accomplished and homely? Not.
Perhaps that is what sets Trump off when Kelly asks him questions. He knows.
#120. To: redleghunter, TooConservative, nativist nationalist, Vicomte13 (#104)
His comments on attractive women winning on his show is also accurate. Do you think Meg Kelly would have a plum job at Fox and her time slot if she was smart, accomplished and homely? Not.
Perhaps that is what sets Trump off when Kelly asks him questions. He knows.
+100
Trump is an insider who knows all the secrets of the elites and just how loudly money talks. Eye-candy who can exploit their charms and editorialize and fake being a conservative like Kelly are a dime a dozen.
Trump's biggest sin: betraying the secret insider pinky-shake of the 1%'ers. And THAT is the reason the elites are stampeding him. Hopefully monied elite like him will be bold enough to break the fraternity of evil that binds them.
