Last night, The Kelly File steamrolled over Donald Trump’s controversial handling of a birther question last week. And Trump responded with another Twitter tantrum.
If host Megyn Kelly hadn’t echoed Trump and Republicans by baselessly painting Hillary Clinton as a fellow birther to Trump, you might have thought Donald Trump was a Democrat.
Kelly’s introduction set the tone when she said Trump “has now offered a series of explanations for what happened at a town hall meeting last Thursday when he failed to challenge a man who questioned President Obama’s faith and his citizenship.”
Fox’s Trace Gallagher report before the discussion was decidedly unflattering to Trump:
GALLAGHER: Hours after the controversial question was asked at that town hall meeting in Rochester, the Trump campaign claimed that Donald Trump never heard the accusation that President Obama was a Muslim, saying all he heard was a question about training camps and that it’s the media who wants to make this issue about Obama.
Two days later, the “I couldn’t hear it” excuse went silent, replaced by a few different arguments, beginning with the First Amendment. Trump posting on Twitter, quote, “If I would have challenged that man, the media would have accused me of interfering with that man’s right of free speech. A no win situation!”
And then Trump said he’s not morally obligated to defend the president followed by this: (Gallagher played a clip of Trump saying that if somebody made nasty or controversial statements about him to President Obama, “Do you think he would come to my rescue? I say no chance, no chance.”)
Trump says this is the first time in his life he’s caused controversy by not saying anything but on ABC’s This Week, he said this:
Trump: I don’t talk about other people’s faith, not appropriate for me to talk about somebody else’s faith.
GALLAGHER: Unless of course, he’s talking about the president’s birth certificate. Listen:
Trump (from 2011) : He may have one but there’s something on that birth – maybe religion, maybe it says he’s a Muslim, I don’t know! Maybe he doesn’t want that. Or he may not have one but I will tell you this, if he wasn’t born in this country, it’s one of the great scams of all time.
GALLAGHER: When asked whether he’d be comfortable with a Muslim president, Trump said, quote, "Some people have said it already happened, frankly."
After that, Kelly brought on conservative Rich Lowry who continued slamming Trump. "I’d have a lot more respect for this guy if he actually stood by things he’s said instead of insulting our intelligence," Lowry said. He compared Trump's handling of the birther matter by comparing it to Trump insulting Carly Fiorina’s face and then claiming he was really talking about her persona. "The idea that you violate someone’s First Amendment rights by disagreeing with them in a town hall? This is a guy who had a journalist removed by force, briefly, from one of his press conferences!" Lowry added.
Lowry also attacked Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton as Christians who were “incredibly weak on radical Islam,” not protectors of “religious liberty.” Then he took a bigger swipe at Obama and added that Jeremiah Wright was Obama's pastor, not his imam.
Before The Kelly File, Fox's Charles Krauthammer took some shots at Trump as well, during The O'Reilly Factor. So it was no surprise that Trump responded with the following tweets last night and today:
Today, Greta Van Susteren wrote on her blog, "Donald — Give it a rest!” (via Mediaite).
Game on!
The gloves are off again. The Foxies have had enough of Trumpster’s mouth, and will take him down through their “usually” methods.
Load up on popcorn! This second half of the show will be better than the first.
Donald J. Trump @realdonaldtrump 9h9 hours ago
“@<a class=“tweet-url username” href=“http://twitter.com/intent/user?screen_name=glendabelle_11”>glendabelle_11: @foxnews Fox has become a supporter of Liberals!They are Not supporting the GOP candidates-especially Trump! Quit watching