Donald Trump upped the ante in his feud with Fox News host Megyn Kelly on Monday, telling “Morning Joe” that she owes him an apology.
“The fact is, she asked me a very inappropriate question, she should really be apologizing to me, you wanna know the truth,” Trump said in a phone interview. “Others of the — if you wanna call them — candidates came up to me at that intermission and said ‘boy, that was unfair what they did to you,’ and everyone felt that.”
Related: Trump defends ‘blood’ comments
In the days since Kelly and Trump sparred during the first Republican debate Thursday, the real estate tycoon has done interview after interview, attempting to respond to criticism over how he handled the tough questions fielded by Kelly, including one about sexist tweets he’s previously sent, in which derided women as “dog,” “fat,” and “disgusting.”
Trump responded by trashing Kelly on Twitter and in an interview with CNN, said there was “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.”
His final comment – taken to be a reference to menstruation, though he says he meant to say “ears or nose” – prompted widespread outrage. Several other candidates criticized his remarks and RedState’s Erick Erickson rescinded Trump’s invitation to speak at this weekend’s Atlanta summit; the presidential hopeful has since spent the past few days fielding questions about it.
Despite the controversy, Trump still dominates the polls: an overnight NBC News online poll conducted by SurveyMonkey showed Trump with 23% of Republican primary voters, a double-digit lead over the next runner up, Sen. Ted Cruz.
And Trump shows no signs of slowing down his criticism. On Monday morning, he tweeted an article describing an interview Kelly gave to Howard Stern where she talked about her sex life and breasts.
Oh really, check out innocent @megynkelly discussion on @HowardStern show 5 years ago–I am the innocent (pure) one!http://t.co/8Hg7f5Q2jE
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 10, 2015Earlier, on “Morning Joe,” Trump said Kelly was “talking gibberish and a stupid question;” he then attempted to explain the “blood” comments.
“There was anger spewing out of her eyes, this is what I was talking about, blood pouring out of her eyes, then I went a little bit further,” Trump said “I didn’t even finish my statement, that’s the amazing thing, because I would have said ‘nose and ears’ because it’s a very common thing.”
Related: ‘The beginning of the end’: Inside Trump’s RedState meltdown
Trump also argued he’ll be the best president for women’s issues.
Asked about how he’d handle equal pay, Trump pivoted to women’s health, criticizing presidential contender Jeb Bush for his clumsy handling on women’s health issues last week.
“This the kind of question I should have been asked and the women’s health issue, which Jeb Bush so amazingly blew four or five days ago,” Trump said, not answering the equal pay question. “I would be the best for women, I would be the best for women’s health issues, Jeb came back and he apologized, you wonder why he’s doing so badly in the polls!”
The Republican candidate argued that he single-handedly boosted the debate’s viewership.
“You had 24 million people at the debate, the highest in history, it was like a record in almost every other way; if I weren’t at the debate – and I don’t say this in a braggadocios way – you would have had, you would have had your standard 2 million people,” Trump said.
Jane Timm