Intraparty feud erupts between Fox News, Trump
WASHINGTON— An unseemly feud has erupted in the Republican realm, between the party’s most-influential news network and its poll leader in the U.S. presidential primary. It’s Fox News versus Donald Trump. The spat ignited during this week’s ratings-record-smashing primary debate, where the bombastic billionaire felt he was unfairly targeted by the Fox crew.
Trump responded in characteristic fashion — with an escalated attack against his perceived rival, and with a particularly crude reference to one of the debate co-moderators, Megyn Kelly.
He did it during an appearance on rival network CNN.
“I’m very disappointed in Fox News,” he told CNN on Friday. “I think they probably had an agenda. But, certainly, I don’t have a lot of respect for Megyn Kelly . . . She gets out, and she starts asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions. And you know, you can see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.”
It was that last phrase — about her “wherever” — that had some conservatives saying he’d finally taken his mean, often misogynistic shtick too far.
Trump defended himself Saturday, posting to his verified Twitter and Facebook accounts the “wherever” he referenced was referring to her “nose.”
Trump’s campaign announced Saturday afternoon that he had fired one of his top advisers, Roger Stone.
However, Stone said he quit Saturday morning after seeing Trump’s CNN comments.