Billionaire up 7 percent in public survey after seemingly sexist comments about Republican debate moderator Megyn Kelly
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump continued to exhibit a seeming imperviousness to criticism on Monday, surging in the polls after the first Republican debate, and following several days of statements that many pundits had considered disastrous to his campaign.
A Morning Consult survey published Monday showed Trump’s lead in the Republican field growing in the days following Thursday’s Fox News debate, with 32 percent of the vote. This represented a 7% increase over last week’s poll.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll did not show a rise for Trump, but also appeared to indicate that the candidate had not damaged himself with his contentious language — the business mogul continued to lead with 24%, unchanged from his numbers before the debate.
It should be noted that polling was conducted between August 7 – August 9, and may not indicate the full electoral impact of Trump’s statements over the past few days.
Trump’s turbulent relationship with Fox News showed signs of improvement Monday even as Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton seized on the billionaire businessman’s clash with the network to cast the entire 2016 Republican presidential field as being bad for women.
Trump and Fox News, one of the most powerful voices in Republican and conservative circles, have been in a bitter feud since last Thursday’s presidential debate. The former reality television star has drawn heated criticism from many in his own party for saying on CNN that Fox debate moderator Megyn Kelly had “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.”
Trump insisted Monday that he never intended to say anything inappropriate about Kelly, one of the most popular hosts on the most watched US cable news network.
But Trump maintains he was treated unfairly in a series of tough questions, including one from Kelly about Trump’s history of negative statements about women. Kelly asked the real estate magnate about his use of words such as “dog,” “fat” and “disgusting” to insult women and whether it reflected the “temperament of a man we should elect as president.”
He maintained Monday that he never intended to say anything inappropriate about Kelly and said the uproar over his criticism was “all fueled by the press.”
“This wasn’t meant to be much of an insult,” he told NBC’s “Today” show.
Trump’s unconventional, insurgent campaign and his series of incendiary comments have vaulted him into an early lead in the race for the Republican presidential nomination just half a year before the first nominating contests in Iowa and New Hampshire. While Trump is considered unlikely to win the Republican presidential nomination, he has enthralled anti-establishment conservatives with his bellicose statements and confounded party leaders trying to bring order to an unwieldy field of 17 candidates.
So far, the self-funded Trump has proved to be immune from what would be viewed as missteps by any other candidate.
Trump tweeted Monday that Fox News chairman Roger Ailes had reached out to him directly Monday, assuring him he’ll be “treated fairly” by the station. Trump appeared on several Sunday morning TV news shows, but not on Fox’s main show. He now is scheduled to appear Tuesday morning on “Fox and Friends.”
“Roger Ailes just called. He is a great guy & assures me that ‘Trump’ will be treated fairly on @FoxNews. His word is always good!” wrote Trump.
Fox News representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but one of the “Fox and Friends” hosts, Steve Doocy, tweeted that Trump would be appearing on “Fox and Friends” Tuesday morning to talk about his relationship with the network.
Trump’s latest remarks have unnerved some in a Republican Party that has long wrestled with the public perception that it is waging a “war on women” and has struggled to convince more women that it’s on their side.
Speaking publicly for the first time since the Republican debate, Clinton on Monday seized on Trump’s comments about Kelly. She said his remarks should not overshadow the rest of the Republican candidates’ policies dealing with women.
“They brag about slashing women’s health care funding,” Clinton told reporters while campaigning in New Hampshire. “They say they would force women who have been raped to carry their rapist’s child, and we don’t hear any of them supporting raising the minimum wage, paid leave for new parents, access to quality child care, equal pay for women or anything else that will help to give women a chance to get ahead.”
Trump’s remarks about Kelly resulted in him being disinvited from a major conservative gathering over the weekend and also earned criticism from other Republican presidential contenders, including the only female, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, who said that Trump’s comments were “completely inappropriate and offensive.”
The Morning Consult poll showed Florida Governor Jeb Bush trailing Trump with 11%, down one point since last week, followed by retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson (9%) and a tire for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and Senator Marco Rubio (Florida) at 6%. The rest of the candidates were all at 5% or less.
As reported by The Times of Israel