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 Not long after these remarks, event organizer Erick Erickson announced that he had withdrawn the invitation:
I have rescinded my invitation to Mr.Trump.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.
#4. To: TooConservative, misterwhite, redleghunter, Stoner, LF (#0)
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.
What utter horsebleep. "Hostile"?? Did these a-holes watch the first few minutes of the debate and FOX News's hit on Trump?? Whomever watched it won't soon forget what they saw and hear WITH THEIR OWN EYES AND EARS.
Megyn Kelly is a "lady"?? Since when? I thought she was...another female super-hero -- just like in the movies! She just demonstrated her own high-falootin' gun slinging "moderating", shooting up the saloon, aiming for Trump's head. But now suddenly she and Fiorina are delicate flowers WHEN it's convenient? And now they require "saving" by a White Knight like Erick Erickson??
Erickson is FOS. He's either a fake Pubbie and tool of GOPe, a Democrat(R), OR a homofascist. Or as I suspect, ALL of the above.
We're finding out not only are the two political PARTIES colluding and co-mingling, but so too are the media -- particularly FOX News.
Guess what? Trump *will* be running Third Party. Thanks to the un-masked FOX News MSNBC-lite and the GOPe, aka Dem-lite. And if the candidate for the GOP isn't Cruz or Walker, my vote goes to Trump. Hitlery or not, we're cratered.
Donald Trump says he would ‘love to have Oprah’ Winfrey as his 2016 running mate; check it out: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/trump-love-oprah-2016-running-mate-article-1.2260917
But on Wednesday, during a separate interview on Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends,” Trump rolled back his comments, saying he and Stephanopoulos were only joking.
“He said that as a joke,” Trump said. “All of a sudden, they say, Donald wants Oprah. Give me a break.”
From your link, bucky.
I guess Trump can flip-flop with the best of them.
