Trump appears to call a truce with Fox’s Kelly
Donald Trump and Megyn Kelly finally talk about their raucous, contentious history over the last nine months. And it appears that things are all patched up.
NEW YORK — Donald Trump and Megyn Kelly appear to have called a truce.
The two sat down for a much-ballyhooed interview that was the culmination — at least for now — of the frequent sparring between the now-presumptive Republican presidential nominee and one of the biggest stars on the conservative-leaning Fox News Channel. It was taped last month and aired Tuesday night on the Fox broadcast network.
Their fight began last August, in the first GOP debate, when Kelly lobbed several tough questions at Trump, including one about how he has publicly talked about women. Trump escalated the feud over Twitter for months.
But the brash celebrity businessman appeared somewhat sheepish in the interview when Kelly asked him about some of the insults he tweeted — or retweeted — her way, frequently including “bimbo.”
“Uh, that was a retweet. Did I say that?” Trump asked.
“Many times,” Kelly responded.
“Ooooh. OK,” said Trump, who insisted that he didn’t want his followers bombarding Kelly with ugly social media posts.
Kelly made a clandestine visit to the Trump Tower in April to negotiate the interview.
Trump praised her for that, saying he had “great respect” for Kelly’s willingness to make the initial approach. He also turned, at times, somewhat introspective, saying “he could have done without” his retweet of a post that mocked the appearance of Heidi Cruz, the wife of former rival Ted Cruz.
“The thing that gets me in trouble is the retweet,” Trump said. “The retweet is really more of a killer than a tweet. I seem to do pretty well with the real tweet.”
But he largely defended his attacks as counterpunching and “not bullying.”