Trump Tweet
Thursday night I live-tweeted the Republican debate. In response to Megyn Kelly’s opening question to candidate Donald Trump, I wrote:
“#GOPDebate #MegynKelly is really socking it to #Trump on his #Misogyny & he is answering like a 4-yr-old. OMG! Give him the hook!”
OK. Full disclosure. I don’t watch Fox News. I’m an MSNBC kind of girl. Chris Hayes, Rachel Maddow, and Melissa Harris-Perry are my peeps. But I do know who Megyn Kelly is, albeit from clips of Jon Stewart (what are we going to do without him?) where he highlighted some of her more puzzling statements like “Jesus was white.”
However, Kelly showed her mettle facing the Republican lineup when she took on Trump right out of the gate, calling him on his all-too-frequent disparagement of women. (I made a note-to-self to find that New York Times Magazine that had her as a cover story, somewhere in a pile on my “to read” table.)
Question: “Mr. Trump, one of the things people love about you is you speak your mind and you don’t use a politician’s filter. However, that is not without its downsides, in particular, when it comes to women. You’ve called women you don’t like ‘fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals.’ ”
Trump interrupted Kelly with what he considered a laugh line:
“Only Rosie O’Donnell.”
Needless to say, it got the requisite guffaws from the audience.
Kelly was not deterred. She moved ahead, replying, “No, it wasn’t.”
As Kelly tried to get out a comment about his use of Twitter, he kept trying to interject, get the last word, and milk the audience for applause. (It worked.)
But Kelly kept steamrolling ahead. She continued:
“For the record, it was well beyond Rosie O’Donnell. Your Twitter account has several disparaging comments about women’s looks. You once told a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice it would be a pretty picture to see her on her knees. Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president, and how will you answer the charge from Hillary Clinton, who was likely to be the Democratic nominee, that you are part of the war on women?”
Not being a fan of Celebrity Apprentice, the “knee" comment was new to me, and when I heard it, I actually gasped.
I already knew that Trump was a schmuck and an equal-opportunity offender. His repertoire for insulting people consists of a litany of well-worn phrases that include:
- They’re stupid
- Not a big fan
- Total clown
- They weren’t nice to me first
The latter is my all-time favorite. Most of these phrases would be expected on an elementary schoolyard playground (beyond earshot of the teacher), but Trump still carries them — proudly — in his toolbox. Delivered along with a shrug, some hand jive, and an accent that sounds more Jersey Shore than Queens, New York, he is a prime example of the saying: “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”
Back to Kelly. I certainly don’t agree with her on a lot. I also think she’s an attractive woman who would have been just as dynamic as a brunette. (Think Angie Harmon as the district attorney on Law & Order.) But being a bottle blonde doesn’t make her a bimbo . . . and that’s where Trump was on his post-election retweets. For his original comments about Kelly via his Twitter stream, he wrote:
“Wow, @megynkelly really bombed tonight. People are going wild on twitter! Funny to watch.” 2:40 AM - 7 Aug 2015
Soon after he followed up with:
"@FrankLuntz: I'm getting a lot of @MegynKelly hatemail tonight. (Smiley Face) #GOPDebate She is totally overrated and angry. She really bombed tonite”
Trump can go around telling people “I think Megyn behaved very nasty to me,” but it really makes him sound like a crybaby. Not the tough negotiator that he claims he will be with Putin, China, and Iran.
Note to Trump and his handlers: Stats from the National Women’s Political Caucus:
- Since 1980, in every presidential election, the proportion of eligible female adults who have voted has exceeded the proportion of eligible male adults who have voted.
- Female voters have outnumbered male voters in every presidential election since 1964.
- In the 2008 presidential election, 60.4% of eligible female adults voted (70.4 million women) while 55.7% of eligible men voted (60.7 million men).
But yeah, I know. We’re all stupid.
