Fox News can put up with a lot, but Donald Trump has crossed a line with the network by continuing to insult anchor Megyn Kelly. Fox News chief Roger Ailes demanded an apology from the 2016 Republican presidential candidate today after Trump’s latest comments.
Kelly returned from her vacation last night to host The Kelly File and was instantly berated by Trump on Twitter, as previously noted.
“.@megynkelly must have had a terrible vacation, she is really off her game. Was afraid to confront Dr. Cornel West. No clue on immigration!” Trump tweeted. “I liked The Kelly File much better without @megynkelly. Perhaps she could take another eleven day unscheduled vacation!”
Kelly did not directly respond to Trump’s statements, but she did tweet that former florida Gov. Jeb Bush thinks Trump’s immigration policies are “unrealistic” and not “conservative.” Kelly also tweeted a list of Trump’s immigration proposals.
Ailes has since sent a statement to Politico on Trump’s “surprise and unprovoked attack” on Kelly, calling Trump’s comments “as unacceptable as it is disturbing.”
“Donald Trump rarely apologizes, although in this case, he should,” Ailes said. “We have never been deterred by politicians or anyone else attacking us for doing our job, much less allowed ourselves to be bullied by anyone and we’re certainly not going to start now. All of our journalists will continue to report in the fair and balanced way that has made FOX News Channel the number one news network in the industry.”
Trump has made Kelly a favorite target of his since the first GOP debate on Aug. 6. Ailes and Trump even spoke over the phone the Monday after the debate and it looked like the two sides had reached a truce.
After Ailes’ statement, Trump attacked Kelly again, telling Politico, “I totally disagree with the FOX statement. I do not think Megyn Kelly is a quality journalist. I think her questioning of me, despite all of the polls saying I won the debate, was very unfair. Hopefully in the future I will be proven wrong and she will be able to elevate her standards to a level of professionalism that a network such as FOX deserves.”