In a call-in interview on CNN Friday, the real estate mogul said Fox News host Megyn Kelly was “off base” when she asked him about derogatory comments he has made about women, his past support for abortion and his criticism of his Republican opponents.
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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump answers a question during the first Republican presidential debate. A combination of quick wit (notably, a Trump diss), specific plans, and clear talking points. The post was later deleted, but on Friday evening Trump called Kelly a “lightweight”.
The debate generated more interest than any Republican or Democratic debate ever, and it’s now one of the highest rated cable television programs of all time, the Nielsen ratings service reported Friday.
ODD COUPLE: In what might have been a bid to insulate himself from attack, Kasich went out of his way to praise Trump.
Christie was asked only four questions all night, the first of which he doubtless wasn’t hoping to hear. “It just was wrong”.
Undoubtedly, the reason for the record ratings was Trump.
Twitter reported that tweets about the two debates were viewed a 1.1 billion times. Lindsey Graham can respond to any question – what did you have for breakfast? – with a call for all-out war in the Middle East. Only former Hewlett-Packard executive Carly Fiorina showed enough novel appeal to suggest she might receive a little bump in the polls from her performance.
“It taps into a perception that’s been around for decades now that the challenges that different groups of women face are not front and center for the GOP and that Democrats will take these concerns more seriously”, he adds.
That dust-up, and Trump’s refusal to say he would support the eventual GOP nominee if he’s not the party’s choice, earned him the top headlines from the debate, overshadowing some of the GOP’s biggest stars and creating space for some new faces to shine. The comedian said on Twitter: “Try explaining that 2 ur kids”. “You can’t relegate her to second-class status anymore”. “She talks like a truck driver”, he said in 2006 during an interview with “Entertainment Tonight”. According to Nielsen Social, 9.3 million people in the US saw at least one of the more than 3 million tweets sent out about the debate by 674,000 people.
“Clearly Trump was the catalyst for the audience”, said Alan Schroeder, a Northeastern University journalism professor who has written extensively about presidential debates. Now, he said, “She’s on my short list” of preferred nominees in her own right. He also said he wanted to be treated with a certain measure of respect.
“Well, I don’t know”. “Shame on you, FOX”, he wrote.
And to former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank in 2011: “Barney Frank looked disgusting – nipples protruding – in his blue shirt before Congress. Very very disrespectful”.
“That must be a pretty picture, you dropping to your knees”, Trump said in response.
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“I think we kind of rumbled last night”, Fiorina began.
