Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Tuesday he doesn’t think Fox News host Megyn Kelly is a “quality journalist” and appeared to reject an entreaty from Fox News Chairman & CEO Roger Ailes that he apologize to Ms. Kelly for recent attacks.
“I totally disagree with the FOX statement,” Mr. Trump said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. “I do not think Megyn Kelly is a quality journalist. I think her questioning of me, despite all the polls saying I won the debate, was very unfair. Hopefully in the future I will be proven wrong and she will be able to elevate her standards to a level of professionalism that a network such as FOX deserves.”
In his statement, Mr. Trump also touted his leads in recent polling on the race for the 2016 GOP nomination.
“It was also just announced that I won the prestigious corn kernel poll at the Iowa State Fair by a landslide,” he said. “I will be in Iowa tonight with my speech being live on CNN and other networks. My sole focus in running for the Presidency is to Make America Great Again!”
Mr. Trump has been feuding with Ms. Kelly since the first Republican presidential debate earlier this month, when Ms. Kelly read a series of disparaging comments about women attributed to Mr. Trump and asked if he thought it was presidential.
Mr. Trump said on CNN after the debate of Ms. Kelly: “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.” He later said only a deviant would think he was talking about Ms. Kelly’s menstrual cycle.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Ailes spoke by phone after that, and Mr. Trump has made appearances on Fox News since then, albeit not on Ms. Kelly’s show, “The Kelly File.”
On Monday evening, however, Mr. Trump took to Twitter and started going after Ms. Kelly again upon her return from a vacation.
“I liked The Kelly File much better without @megynkelly. Perhaps she could take another eleven day unscheduled vacation!” he tweeted.
“.@megynkelly must have had a terrible vacation, she is really off her game. Was afraid to confront Dr. Cornel West. No clue on immigration!” he also tweeted.
He also shared a tweet from someone else referring to Ms. Kelly as a “bimbo.”
Mr. Ailes issued a lengthy statement earlier Tuesday defending Ms. Kelly and calling on Mr. Trump to apologize.
“Donald Trump’s surprise and unprovoked attack on Megyn Kelly during her show last night is as unacceptable as it is disturbing,” the statement read. “Megyn Kelly represents the very best of American journalism and all of us at FOX News Channel reject the crude and irresponsible attempts to suggest otherwise.”
“I could not be more proud of Megyn for her professionalism and class in the face of all of Mr. Trump’s verbal assaults. Her questioning of Mr. Trump at the debate was tough but fair, and I fully support her as she continues to ask the probing and challenging questions that all presidential candidates may find difficult to answer,” Mr. Ailes said.
“Donald Trump rarely apologizes, although in this case, he should,” he continued. “We have never been deterred by politicians or anyone else attacking us for doing our job, much less allowed ourselves to be bullied by anyone and we’re certainly not going to start now. All of our journalists will continue to report in the fair and balanced way that has made FOX News Channel the number one news network in the industry.”
Speaking to reporters in Iowa later Tuesday, Mr. Trump said it was Ms. Kelly who should be apologizing to him.
“She actually should be apologizing to me,” he said. “I thought her questioning and her attitude was totally inappropriate … all you have to do is look on the internet today and you’ll see who people favor in that one.”
“It’s a very small element in my life, Megyn Kelly, I don’t care about Megyn Kelly, but no, I would not apologize,” he said. “She should probably apologize to me, but I just don’t care.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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