GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump said Wednesday that Fox News host Megyn Kelly isn’t getting under is skin and rejected the suggestion that he’s developed something akin to a schoolyard crush on her.
“Why have you let Megyn Kelly get so far under your skin?” host Matt Lauer asked Mr. Trump on NBC’s “Today” program.
“Well, I haven’t,” Mr. Trump said. “I mean, you know, you tweet a few tweets or retweets in this case — that’s not getting under your skin. I personally am not a fan. I don’t think she does a good job. I don’t think she’s a very good professional.”
“And I think, frankly, the show’s better without her, but that’s up to them, and they can do whatever they want. I respect [Fox News Chairman & CEO] Roger Ailes. He can do whatever he wants, I don’t care,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Lauer said it was starting to sound like Mr. Trump was “a guy with a schoolyard crush.”
“When we were in elementary school and junior high school, you know, guys often say the meanest things about the girls they like the most,” Mr. Lauer said.
“Trust me, Matt — there is no crush,” Mr. Trump said. “That I can tell you, and as far as I was concerned, during the debate, she asked me questions that were totally inappropriate. Other people were asked nice questions about jobs, about God, about other things, and she hits me with questions that were totally inappropriate. A lot of people said that, many people agreed with me.”
“She knows it better than anybody because Fox was — you talk about Twitter … they were going after Fox big league because of the kind of questions I was asked that night,” he said. “Despite that, every poll of the debate had me winning.
“Time Magazine had me winning, Drudge had me winning the debate, but I was not asked fair question[s],” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump had been feuding with Ms. Kelly since the Aug. 6 GOP debate, during which she read of list of disparaging comments about women attributed to Mr. Trump and asked if he thought it was presidential. After speaking by phone with Mr. Ailes, Mr. Trump once again appeared on Fox News programs, though not “The Kelly File,” but started going after her again on Twitter Monday evening upon her return from a vacation.
Mr. Ailes on Tuesday called on Mr. Trump to apologize.
“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,” read part of a lengthy statement from Mr. Ailes.
Asked Wednesday whether he embraces the term bully when it comes to dealings with the press, Mr. Trump said, “I’m not a bully.”
“In fact, I think it’s just the opposite way. I’m not a bully,” he said. “You saw that last night. This man gets up and starts ranting and raving and screaming, and honestly very disrespectful to all the other reporter[s].”
Mr. Trump was referring to Univision anchor Jorge Ramos, who was escorted from a press conference in Iowa before later being allowed back in.
“We had a packed house — we had a tremendous group of people in Iowa — the room was packed with thousands of people,” Mr. Trump said. “The press room was packed prior to — I did a press event prior to, and he gets up and just starts ranting and raving and very disrespectful to all of the other reporters that had questions also.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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