|
 Trump blasted Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly during a debate in
Cleveland on Thursday when she questioned him about insulting
comments he had made about women. The backlash to his exchange with
Kelly has threatened to knock the wheels off the bandwagon of
support that had Trump leading early polls in the race for the
Republican nomination for the 2016 election.
Asked about Kelly on a CNN interview on Friday, Trump said: "You
could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out
of her wherever."
Trump was promptly dumped from a keynote speaking role on Saturday
night in Atlanta at an important gathering of conservative activists
put together by the RedState organization. Republican candidates
Carly Fiorina, Scott Walker, Lindsey Graham, Rick Perry and George
Pataki denounced the comments on Twitter or in statements.
RedState chief Erick Erickson said he disinvited Trump because of
his remarks about Kelly on CNN.
 The Trump campaign issued a statement clarifying that by "her
wherever," Trump meant Kelly's nose.
"Mr. Trump made Megyn Kelly look really bad - she was a mess with
her anger and totally caught off guard," the campaign said. Trump
said 'blood was coming out of her eyes and whatever' meaning nose,
but wanted to move on to more important topics. Only a deviant would
think anything else."
Erickson, who invited Kelly to replace Trump at the conference, said
he revoked Trump's invitation because he did not "want someone on
stage who gets a hostile question from a lady and his first
inclination is to imply it was hormonal."
A campaign spokeswoman said on Saturday that Trump had fired senior
political adviser Roger Stone, the second firing of a senior staffer
over the past week. The reason cited was that Stone was using the
Trump campaign for his own personal publicity. Stone denied being
fired, saying he resigned over the direction of Trump's campaign.
Trump also took to Twitter on Saturday to renounce politically
correct attitudes, as he had done at the debate.
"So many 'politically correct' fools in our country," he wrote. "We
have to all get back to work and stop wasting time and energy on
nonsense!"
Rival candidates, however, hammered on their doubts that Trump was
ready to represent the Republican party in a presidential run.
[to top of second column] |
“Enough already with Mr. Trump,” said Graham, a senator from South
Carolina. “As a party, we are better to risk losing without Donald
Trump than trying to win with him.”
He added: "Due to Donald Trump’s unrelenting and offensive attack on
Megyn Kelly and others, we are at a crossroads with Mr. Trump."
Without mentioning Trump's name, Jeb Bush made reference to him when
he spoke to RedState. Bush, former governor of Florida, said the
tough questions at the debate were nothing compared to the
challenges the next president will face.
"You think that’s tough? How about dealing with (Russian President
Vladimir) Putin? How about dealing with the challenges that exist in
our country? This is nothing," he said.
Erickson read aloud some of the emails he had been getting from
Trump supporters to protest his move, saying it appeared the Trump
campaign had made his email address available to them.
In some of the emails, according to Erickson, the writers used a
racial epithet to refer to President Barack Obama and made other
inflammatory comments.
"I've got to tell you guys, I made the right decision," said
Erickson. "These are the people I don't ever want at a RedState
event."
(Writing and reporting by Bill Trott; Additional reporting by Steve
Holland; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
