Iowa football fans targeted by first ad blitz from pro-Jeb Bush super PAC
Iowa football fans will be some of the first to experience an initial advertising blitz for Jeb Bush, as a pro-Bush super PAC placed a seven-figure airtime buy for the last quarter of 2015. Right to Rise USA is spending $1.66 million for TV time in Iowa – which holds the nation’s first presidential caucuses — set to run from Sept. 15 to Dec. 28. It will also be the first major advertising campaign supporting a specific candidate in the 2016 race. Right to Rise raised $103 million in the first half of the year. Bloomberg Politics reports the networks scheduled for the ads include ESPN, ESPN 2, Fox News, Hallmark, HGTV, History, TBS and USA. Also on the ad schedule are spots during the Iowa football games on the Big Ten Network between September and November. Polling analyst Ken Goldstein, a professor of politics at the University of San Francisco, calls the ad buy strategy “like a tell in poker.” “If you’re looking for white males in Iowa,” Goldstein told Bloomberg, “where would you go looking for them in the fall? College football.” Federal Communication Commission documents also show Right to Rise investigated advertising rates in more than a dozen media markets, including those in early primary states like Florida, Ohio and Missouri. According to the Associated Press, the super PAC plans on spending $10 million for television time in first-in-the-nation primary states New Hampshire, Iowa, and South Carolina. Right to Rise, which has so far spent nearly $22 million on the race, invested only about $150,000 on digital ads in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. The money was primarily for a spot pushing Bush as a more trustworthy alternative to Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.
Donald Trump dumps insults on questioners, insists on control
For Donald Trump, the joy of the insult seems as compelling as the art of the deal. Whether his challengers are fellow presidential candidates, the press or others, they are, according to Trump: incompetent, weak, pathetic, disgusting, idiots or the like. He described Democratic presidential contender Martin O’Malley, for example, as acting “like a disgusting, little, weak, pathetic baby.” So far in the rollicking 2016 presidential contest, the billionaire businessman is showing little willingness to dial down his because-I-said-so style to suit the conventions of political campaigns – where the voters are supposed to be the boss. Trump is used to controlling his world like the boss he is. On Tuesday night, he dismissed a Latino reporter from his press conference for demanding to know how Trump intended to deport all 11 million people in the country illegally. “I have a right to ask a question,” said Univision’s Jorge Ramos. “No you don’t,” Trump said. “You haven’t been called.” Trump merely tossed a glance to his left and a bodyguard escorted a protesting Ramos out. Trump’s primacy re-established, he later let Ramos back into the conference and took his question. Count on Trump to react when someone crosses him, even mildly. “When somebody hurts you, just go after them as viciously and as violently as you can,” Trump wrote in his book “How to Get Rich.” In fact, Trump’s reality show campaign is one of the things people like about him. Trump is at the top of the polls in the GOP field, drawing more passion and bigger crowds than his Republican competitors. “It’s totally refreshing,” said Leigh Ann Crouse, 55, of Dubuque, as she waited in a 100-yard-long line Tuesday to see Trump. “He has a backbone, and he cannot be bought.” Here are some examples of Trump’s in-your-face approach to the 2016 presidential contest: —- TRUMP vs JEB BUSH Trump succeeded this week in putting the former Florida governor, whose wife is Mexican-American, on the defense on immigration issues. The two quarreled over the term “anchor baby,” which some find an offensive term to describe children born to people in the U.S. illegally. Bush defended himself by saying he’d been referring to wealthy Asians who come to the U.S. to bear children. That earned Bush a chorus of demands for an apology to Asian people. “Asians are very offended that JEB said that anchor babies applies to them as a way to be more politically correct to Hispanics,” Trump gloated on Twitter. “A mess!” But a true Trumpism requires a personal dig. Trump has repeatedly served that up by calling Bush “low energy” and suggesting “every time you watch him, you fall asleep.” — TRUMP vs JORGE RAMOS: “Go back to Univision,” Trump told Ramos, an anchor for the Spanish-language network. It was the latest salvo in Trump’s conflict with Univision, which began when the network cancelled its contract to broadcast his Miss Universe Organization pageants. Univision said it was responding to Trump’s description of Mexican immigrants as criminals and “rapists” in his June campaign announcement speech. Trump is suing the network for $500 million for breach of contract and defamation – and bragging about it. Five times during the news conference, Trump told Ramos to sit down. When that didn’t work, the billionaire had Ramos hustled out. Letting him back in later, Trump extended an upturned hand toward Ramos and said, “Yes? Good, absolutely. Good to have you back.” Trump complained Wednesday on NBC’s “Today” show that Ramos had been “totally, absolutely out of line” and “ranting and raving like a madman.” “I’m not a bully,” Trump said. “In fact, I think it’s just the opposite way.” — TRUMP vs MEGYN KELLY: Trump’s feud with the popular Fox News anchor began during the first Republican primary debate, when Kelly called Trump out on his previous comments describing women as “pigs” and “dogs.” Convinced that the question was out of line, Trump launched a full-blown campaign to discredit the anchor with a series of insulting tweets and interviews. On CNN, he claimed that she’d had “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever” during the debate. After what had seemed like a detente with the network, Trump’s vitriol returned this week when Kelly came back from vacation. “(at)megynkelly must have had a terrible vacation, she is really off her game,” he tweeted Monday. He retweeted another comment that referred to her as a “bimbo.” — TRUMP vs LINDSEY GRAHAM: Trump made clear he had zero regard for the rules of political decorum when he proceeded to read South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham’s personal cellphone number to a roomful of his supporters after Graham, one of his Republican rivals, called him a “jackass” on TV. The two have continued to spar, with each calling the other an “idiot.” “Come to South Carolina, and I’ll beat his brains out,” a riled-up Graham told CNN on Tuesday, referring to beating Trump in his state’s Republican primary. “I know my state. This is a silly season in politics. He is shallow.” Trump responded with a tweet: “Congrats (at)LindseyGrahamSC. You just got 4 points in your home state of SC-far better than zero nationally. You’re only 26 pts behind me.” — TRUMP vs. FOX NEWS: Fox News is the kind of beast that Republican wannabes rarely take on. Not Trump. “I think they cover me terribly,” he told reporters at the press conference in Iowa, in which he repeatedly railed against his coverage by the network, despite frequent appearances and phone-ins. Trump returned to bashing Kelly this week, and the network chief Roger Ailes engaged. “Megyn Kelly represents the very best of American journalism and all of us at Fox News Channel reject the crude and irresponsible attempts to suggest otherwise,” Ailes said in a statement demanding Trump apologize. “I could not be more proud of Megyn for her professionalism and class in the face of all of Mr. Trump’s verbal assaults,” he added. Trump, meanwhile, shows no
Fox News chief: Donald Trump owes Megyn Kelly an apology
Fox News chief Roger Ailes said Tuesday that Donald Trump owes the network’s Megyn Kelly an apology for an unprovoked Twitter attack that “is as unacceptable as it is disturbing,” but Trump isn’t backing down. The Republican presidential front-runner-turned-TV-critic had welcomed Kelly back from a vacation Monday night by tweeting that he liked her show better while she was away. Trump said Kelly “must have had a terrible vacation” because “she’s really off her game.” He retweeted a message that referred to her as a bimbo. “Megyn Kelly represents the very best of American journalism and all of us at Fox News Channel reject the crude and irresponsible attempts to suggest otherwise,” said Ailes, the Fox News Channel chairman. “I could not be more proud of Megyn for her professionalism and class in the face of all of Mr. Trump’s verbal assaults.” Trump, in a statement, said he disagreed with Ailes and that he doesn’t think Kelly is a quality journalist. “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.” In a news conference later Tuesday in Dubuque, Iowa, Trump again refused to apologize to Kelly, saying, “She should probably apologize to me, but I just don’t care.” He added, “I think Fox treats me terribly.” Trump has been attacking Kelly ever since her tough questioning of him during the first GOP presidential debate, seen by 24 million people on Fox on Aug. 6. A day after the debate, he said Kelly had “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.” That led to a private, clear-the-air conversation between Ailes and Trump two weeks ago, but that clearly hasn’t led to peace. In his tweets, Trump repeated his contention that Kelly, host of a prime-time Fox News show and one of the network’s biggest stars, was sent on an unplanned vacation that ended Monday. Fox said her time off had been scheduled long before the debate. Trump also tweeted that Kelly was afraid to confront a guest, Dr. Cornel West, and that she had “no clue” on immigration. Ailes again backed Kelly for her questioning during the debate, which he said was tough but fair. “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.” Some of Kelly’s Fox colleagues also came to her defense. Bret Baier, who moderated the debate with Kelly and Chris Wallace, tweeted that “this needs to stop.” Brian Kilmeade said on “Fox & Friends” that Trump’s comments bothered him personally. “We are all friends with Donald Trump, but he is totally out of bounds reigniting that fight,” Kilmeade said. “I don’t know if he’s trying to get ratings out of that or poll numbers, but he’s not going to be successful.” At his news conference, Trump got into another confrontation with a different anchor, Univision’s Jorge Ramos. Trump initially had his security detail remove Ramos from the room, but Ramos returned later to ask some questions about immigration policy. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
The true cost of Donald Trump’s Twitter tirades
Donald Trump has decided in the mist of a crowded primary to reengage with Megyn Kelly continuing the spat started post debate. First he tweeted, “I liked The Kelly File much better without Megyn Kelly. Perhaps she could take another eleven day unscheduled vacation!” He went on to retweet negative comments about her, including one that called her a “bimbo.” I’ve said all along that Trump isn’t taking his campaign for president seriously and his continued child like antics prove that point. Here’s the thing about Trumps Twitter tirades, such as the one against Kelly, they’re indicative of a bigger problem which is the lack of seriousness and focus of his campaign. Those saying Trump is their first pick are largely responding to his lack of political correctness and the way he doesn’t dance around and sugar coat tough issues. It’s refreshing to hear someone who isn’t afraid to offend the masses. There’s certainly truth to the notion people are too easily offended. What’s worse is not that people are offended but it’s that they act as though the offending party has a responsibility to apologize and change their behavior. Trump is pushing the envelope to do away with political correctness which in some cases should be applauded. I’m offended by Trump’s twitter fights but not because as a woman his name calling of another woman bothers me but because as a conservative who wants to win the next election cycle I know the true cost is in media time lost covering this and not other candidates in the field or what the democrats are doing. Trump needs to keep his eye on the prize and that prize isn’t cheap media coverage but media coverage that matters. He showed he could do that by putting the pressure up on the immigration issue but now he needs to show he can continue to do it on issues that matter.
Ex-Donald Trump aide still supports businessman’s White House race
A former adviser who says he quit Donald Trump‘s presidential campaign is calling the billionaire real estate mogul the best bet to shake up a “broken” U.S. political system. Roger Stone says he resigned because he felt Trump was getting too distracted by marginal issues like his feud with Fox News personality Megyn Kelly. There have been conflicting reports about the circumstances surrounding Stone’s departure, including contentions by the campaign that he was fired. Yet Stone, who’s consulted eight presidential campaigns, says he supports Trump. He tells NBC’s Today show Tuesday that Trump is the only candidate who “has the gumption and independence” to shake up the system. Stone adds that he wishes Trump would give more attention to “big-picture issues,” in the style of former President Ronald Reagan. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
CBS News to overhaul 2016 convention coverage
CBS News will overhaul its coverage of the 2016 Democratic and Republican conventions to emphasize participants “on the ground” rather than chatter in the network’s skybox, CBS News President David Rhodes said. Dismissing any predictions of a candidate’s selection coming down to the convention wire — “It’s not going to happen,” he said — Rhodes said there is news being made by decision-makers and others at the convention. He said his bias is toward coverage of what they are doing and saying as opposed to putting resources into the “air-conditioned skyboxes” above the convention floor that typically showcase network reporters and analysts. Traditional keynote speeches and other major scheduled events will be aired, he said. But there is an ongoing “dance” between the political parties and networks over coverage, with all involved spending “a lot of money” on the conventions, Rhodes told a TV critics’ meeting Monday. CBS is on to tap to air primary election debates for the Democratic and Republican presidential contenders, with the network airing the Nov. 14 Democratic debate and the GOP one set for Feb. 13. Both are Saturday nights, which typically attract smaller TV audiences. The moderator for each will be John Dickerson, CBS News’ political director and anchor of “Face the Nation,” Rhodes said. He was asked if CBS would limit the number of candidates, as Fox News Channel did — using poll numbers — for the first Republican candidate debate last week. The first Democratic debate is set for Oct. 13 in Nevada. In a “perfect world,” every candidate would be able to participate, he said, but a line has to be drawn given large candidate fields. He said the formula for the CBS-aired debates would be made closer to the dates. Dickerson, who recently succeeded the retired Bob Schieffer as host of “Face the Nation,” spoke with relish about covering the ’16 election, and not just because of GOP contender Donald Trump or the unexpected candidacy of Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders. “This was going to be an exciting election before it became the Summer of Trump,” because both parties will be picking candidates in the absence of an incumbent president running, Dickerson said. Add to that the feeling of many Americans that politics is “rigged” against them and their worries about major issues including terrorism and it makes for an energized political climate, he said. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Donald Trump gets backlash for slamming TV host popular with GOP
Donald Trump already slammed the president, the Democratic Party and his Republican rivals in the race for the White House, as well as immigrants from Mexico, the Chinese and Sen. John McCain for being a prisoner of war. To that fast-growing list he has now added Fox News Channel host Megyn Kelly. The Republican Party 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. By Sunday, as Trump made the rounds of the morning talk shows, he was insisting, “I cherish women.” And yet for the outspoken, combative Trump, Kelly would seem to represent a type of person primed to get his goat. At 44, she is recognized as successful, whip-smart, commanding and, as she demonstrated during Thursday’s GOP debate, a woman more than ready to stand up to the 69-year-old billionaire. Trump’s position on women might be signaled by his proud ownership of beauty pageants and by his wisecrack on a TV show a decade ago that he would date his own daughter, a former teen model who was then 24, if only he weren’t her father. Referring to her debate dust-up with Trump, Kelly said in an interview broadcast Sunday, “I’m sure he’ll get over that. We’ll be fine. And so will America.” But her appearance on Fox News Channel’s “Media Buzz” was taped Friday, before Trump made his “blood coming out of her wherever” remark. Since arriving at Fox News in 2004, Kelly has broken out as a superstar. Her prime-time program, “The Kelly File,” which she launched two years ago in an upgrade from her afternoon slot, attracts upward of 2.5 million viewers. A native of Syracuse, New York, Kelly had been a self-described “unhappy Washington lawyer” when she began as a weekend reporter for a local Washington station in 2003. A year after that, she was hired by Fox News chief Roger Ailes. There she struck a different chord from the partisan hosts who surrounded her on the schedule, carving out an image as a calls-’em-as-she-sees-’em yet not-so-doctrinaire figure. “I’ve never wanted to be an opinion host, and Roger Ailes hasn’t wanted me to be an opinion host,” she told The Associated Press in 2013. “I don’t think I’d be very successful anyway. I’m not an ideologue. … I think I’m too moderate and reasonable.” Kelly has cultivated an image of speaking up in ways that have even run counter to Fox’s image. On election night 2012 she left the set to go interview Fox’s behind-the-scenes numbers analyst, tamping down the embarrassment of on-air contributor Karl Rove questioning the pronouncement that President Barack Obama had won re-election. Her legal training helped Fox correct, quicker than its rivals, an initially wrong report on the Supreme Court’s health care decision in 2012. She expressed disgust at a man’s suggestion that children of working mothers don’t fare as well as children with stay-at-home moms. In June, she scored a plum assignment from her bosses: She was tapped to interview two of the Duggar daughters who admitted to being sexually fondled by their brother, Josh Duggar, all stars of the TLC reality series, “19 Kids and Counting.” Kelly also interviewed the parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, for what was the family’s first discussion of the molestation episodes a dozen years before. Kelly’s latest showcase was joining fellow Fox News colleagues Bret Baier and Chris Wallace to moderate Thursday’s debate with Trump, the current GOP presidential front-runner, and nine other contenders. Kelly and Trump clashed early on. A tense exchange found her pressing Trump on his history of calling “women you don’t like `fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals,’” with Trump firing back, “What I say is what I say. And honestly, Megyn, if you don’t like it, I’m sorry. I’ve been very nice to you although I could probably maybe not be, based on the way you have treated me. But I wouldn’t do that.” By Friday, Trump had seemingly decided to be less nice. “She’s not very tough and not very sharp,” he said during a phone interview on CNN, then, referring to Kelly’s style of questioning him, he added, “There was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.” That startling outburst cost Trump an appearance before some 1,000 conservative activists at Saturday’s RedState Gathering in Atlanta when he was promptly disinvited from the event. The Republication Party asked him to “immediately clarify” his remark. Saturday evening, he and a campaign adviser parted company. But Sunday, Trump remained defiant. “I apologize when I’m wrong, but I haven’t been wrong,” he declared, saying only “a deviant” would interpret his remark as a gynecological swipe. He even denied having said it. “Do you think I’d make a stupid statement like that?” While Kelly seemed to score a boost from the uproar, Trump was unbowed, even claiming credit for the debate’s huge audience. Without him on hand, “I say with all due modesty, you would have had 2 million people and not 24 million people.” But despite a series of attacks by Trump that fortified his standing in the polls, CNN’s Jake Tapper asked if targeting Kelly, “who’s beloved by conservatives, beloved by Republican voters,” might end up hurting him. “Her whole questioning was extremely unfair to me,” Trump replied. But he insisted, “I have nothing against Megyn Kelly.” Republished with permission from the Associated Press.
Donald Trump defends record on women as presidential rivals pile on
Donald Trump doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon, so his rivals are scrambling to figure out how best to handle the blowback from every new bout of bluster drowning out their campaigns. Lead the charge, if you’re the sole woman in the Republicans’ White House race and trying to crack the top tier for the next debate, by questioning Trump’s ability to withstand the pressure of the presidency. Belittle Trump’s claim to be a truth-teller by arguing that self-promotion is the billionaire’s guiding philosophy. Warn that Trump’s provocative comments about women endanger the party’s standing with a group that makes up the majority of voters. Or simply plead for the incessant Trump questioning to cease so that other candidates can get on with the business of why they’re running. These are the varied approaches of the other 16 Republican candidates fighting for attention and breathing room in a primary field eclipsed by Trump. On Sunday, he was back, splashed across the weekend news shows, dismissing the latest firestorm to consume his campaign and explaining how he cherishes women and would be their strongest advocate if elected. “I’m leading by double digits, so maybe I shouldn’t change,” he boasted. The latest controversy started Thursday night when Fox News debate moderator Megyn Kelly recounted Trump’s history of incendiary comments toward women. Angry over what he considered unfair treatment at the debate, Trump told CNN on Friday night that Kelly had “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.” The remark cost Trump a prime-time speaking slot at the RedState Gathering, the Atlanta conference where several other presidential candidates spoke to about 1,000 conservative activists. But Trump refused to back down, insisting Sunday that only “a deviant” would interpret his comment beyond a harmless barb. “I apologize when I’m wrong, but I haven’t been wrong. I said nothing wrong,” said Trump, who spoke to four Sunday news shows, skipping only Fox News, the network with which he is feuding. The flap is just the latest from Trump’s unconventional, insurgent campaign, which has excited many anti-establishment conservatives while confounding party leaders already facing the prospects of a bruising fight among 17 candidates. Some have responded by sharpening their critiques, questioning Trump’s electability, his conservative credentials, policy ideas and personality. Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, the only woman running for the GOP nomination, appeared most adept at seizing on the comments as she strives to break into the top 10. “I think women of all kinds are really sort of horrified by this,” she said, arguing that there was a difference between being politically incorrect and insulting. She also questioned Trump’s suitability for office, suggesting the businessman may be unprepared for the pressure that comes with being president. “I think you cannot have a president who is thin-skinned. If you think a question is tough, imagine the pressure of actually being in the Oval Office,” she said. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a frequent Trump critic, went after Trump’s temperament and a muddled record filled with contradictory statements. “I don’t think we should reward vulgarity. And I don’t think vulgarity equates with insight,” he said. Paul also continued a line of attack he began in the debate. “I have no idea whether he’s conservative,” the senator said. “He really could be a liberal, for all I’m concerned. I have no idea what his real philosophy is, other than that he is for promoting himself.” Jeb Bush, the presidential favorite for many top Republican donors, said at RedState that Trump’s bombast would hurt the GOP’s chances with women, who already tilt toward Democrats in presidential elections. “Do we want to win? Do we want to insult 53 percent of our voters?” the former Florida governor asked. Other candidates bemoaned the challenge of preaching their message when all their precious free TV time is spent being asked about Trump. “At this point, I mean, we’ve got to focus on our message. Otherwise, my whole campaign will be, `How do you feel about what Donald Trump said about something?’” Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said. “He says something every day.” Ohio Gov. John Kasich, took a similar tone, describing himself as a strong proponent of women, but avoiding criticizing Trump at length. “I think it’s more important for me to tell you who I am and what I think than spend my time on the negative side of the street,” he said. Mike Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor seemed exasperated at RedState, at one point snapping at reporters after being asked several Trump-related questions. On Sunday, he took a more measured approach. “I think the rest of us are doing what we’re supposed to do and that’s focus on getting a message out, which is sometimes hard to do because all the air in the balloon is going to Donald Trump right now,” he said. Trump, who has refused to rule out a third party run if he falls short of the GOP nomination, was asked about those Republicans wondering what it will take to get him out of their party. “I don’t think anything. I really want to stay.” Trump appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” CBS’ “Face the Nation,” ABC’s “This Week” and CNN’s ” State of the Union.” Fiorina was on CNN, CBS and “Fox News Sunday. Kasich appeared on CNN and ABC, while Huckabee was on ABC, Rubio on NBC and Paul on Fox. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Debate performance puts spark into Carly Fiorina’s GOP campaign
As Carly Fiorina stood at the back of a packed hotel ballroom to give a television interview, a gaggle of conservative activists watched, chattered and snapped pictures as if she were a Hollywood celebrity. Minutes later, more than 1,000 people at the annual political confab RedState Gathering stood and roared as the former Hewlett-Packard chief executive took the stage and delivered an impassioned speech on the virtues of conservatism. “Well, I don’t know. I think we kind of rumbled last night. What do you think?” Fiorina said. “I had a lot of fun last night.” The night might turn out to be the one that changes her place in the 2016 race for president. A day after a strong performance in the pre-debate debate for those relegated to second-tier status by Fox News‘ assessment of the national polls, Fiorina was reveling in rave reviews for her aggressive approach. In her first campaign stop since, the admitted longshot candidate — she has never held public office — embraced the prospect of new momentum for her underfunded campaign. She told the crowd at RedState on Friday that Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama all were once regarded as quixotic candidates. “You know why all of those men served as president?” she asked. “Because people decided they wanted them to win.” Fiorina told the crowd that her experience in the private sector and ability to sell conservatism without the baggage of being a long-serving politician set her apart in a field replete with current and former senators and governors. “People get captured by a system they’ve been in for too long,” she said, adding that “people who protect the status quo most aggressively are people who have benefited most from it.” The best hope, she said, is someone who is not from the status quo “but who can see it, who understands it and who has the courage to change it.” While Fiorina, 60, doesn’t always mention that she’s the only woman running for the Republican nomination, she has built her early campaign around broadsides against Hillary Rodham Clinton — even going so far as to shadow the Democrats’ 2016 favorite at campaign stops around the country. “We’re going to have to have a nominee who throws every punch, who will not ever pull her punches,” Fiorina said Friday, continuing her attacks on Clinton’s record as secretary of state. She also said Republicans must steel themselves for a bruising campaign against Democratic Party policies that are “crushing the potential of this nation” and “entangle people’s lives in a web of dependency.” Democrats play “identity politics,” Fiorina said, promising she would counter with “the truth that Democrats are bad for women, bad for African-Americans, bad for Hispanics, bad for economic growth.” Fiorina lost her only other bid for public office, a 2010 effort to unseat Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer in California. Before that, she rose from a job as a secretary to become the first female chief executive of a Fortune 20 company before the Hewlett-Packard board of directors forced her out in 2005. As of mid-July, Fiorina had reported raising $1.4 million for her campaign, while an outside group said it raised $3.4 million to back her. The combined total could finance a credible governor’s race in most small to mid-size states, but it falls far short of what a presidential candidate needs to hire a full staff and buy television time across multiple primary states. But Fiorina has hopes that will change, and Erick Erickson, the conservative radio commentator who hosts the RedState Gathering, warned against dismissing her. “When I heard that Carly Fiorina was running for president, I gotta tell ya, I wondered, ‘Is she running for president or vice president?’” Erickson said. “But, holy cow … no doubt about it, she’s running for president.” Loren Heal, a factory worker from Neoga, Illinois, said he came to the conference viewing Fiorina only as “our antidote to Hillary.” Now, he said, “She’s on my short list” of preferred nominees in her own right. Jerry Landers, a lawyer from Marietta, Georgia, added: “I think she gets promoted to the main stage. You can’t relegate her to second-class status anymore.” Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Debate shatters Fox News ratings record, Donald Trump feels heat
Donald Trump always boasted about his ratings for “Celebrity Apprentice.” Now he can say the same thing about his first presidential debate, even if he didn’t like the show very much. Thursday’s prime-time GOP candidates’ forum on Fox News Channel reached a stunning 24 million viewers, by far the largest audience ever for that network and any cable news event. The closest was the 1992 “Larry King Live” debate between Al Gore and Ross Perot on CNN, which was seen by 16.8 million people, the Nielsen company said. In fact, it stands as the most-watched television program of the summer so far, beating the last game of the NBA Finals and the women’s World Cup soccer finals, Nielsen said. The debate left front-runner Trump singed by the aggressive questioning of Fox’s moderator team of Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace. Trump tweeted out criticism of the moderators as “not very good or professional” and retweeted a message from a supporter who called Kelly a “bimbo.” Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes called his moderators “the best political team ever put on television.” Trump became the focus of Thursday’s forum right away, when Baier asked the 10 candidates onstage in Cleveland which of them would not pledge to support the eventual GOP nominee or run a third-party candidacy. Trump was the only one to raise his hand, leading opponent Rand Paul to criticize him. Kelly’s sharp first question noted that Trump had called women he didn’t like “fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals.” When Trump suggested he had only insulted Rosie O’Donnell, Kelly corrected him and asked whether this represented the proper temperament for a president and left him vulnerable to charges that he is part of a war on women. Trump pointed to his lack of political correctness. “I’ve been very nice to you although I could probably not be based on the way you’ve treated me,” Trump told Kelly. “But I wouldn’t do that.” Wallace asked Trump two tough questions and, in a quick-moving format that allowed little time for followups, both times came back at Trump for not answering them. Wallace asked Trump to provide proof for his earlier statement that the Mexican government is sending criminals to the United States, and later questioned him on how he could be trusted to run the nation’s economy when his companies have declared bankruptcy four times. Baier asked Trump to reconcile his past support of single-payer health care with his opposition to President Obama‘s health plan, and what he felt he received in return for past political donations to Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi. Kelly also pointed out Trump’s past support for Democrats and asked, “when did you become a Republican?” “I don’t think they like me very much,” Trump said. Later, Trump wrote on Twitter: “I really enjoyed the debate tonight even though the @foxnews trio, especially @megynkelly, was not very good or professional.” In another message, he wrote that Kelly “really bombed.” He retweeted several messages from others who criticized Fox, including one who wrote that “Fox viewers give low marks to bimbo @MegynKelly.” On Fox after the debate, Kelly noted that it “creates an awkward dynamic” to have Trump attack her after she has asked a tough question about what he has said and done to women. “I’m extremely proud of all of the moderators – they asked tough, important questions and did their job as journalists,” Ailes told POLITICO. “I think that was the best political debate team ever put on television. Their performance was outstanding.” Fox had attracted attention prior to the debate for deciding to include 10 of the 17 declared candidates in the prime-time debate. The other candidates competed in a forum that began at 5 p.m. ET to an audience of one-quarter the size. Still, even the earlier forum attracted a larger audience than all but five of 18 Republican debates televised during the 2012 election cycle. The most-watched GOP primary debate for the 2012 election, on ABC in December 2011, had 7.6 million people, Nielsen said. Fox attracted just under 12 million viewers for its 2012 Election Night coverage, its previous standard for biggest audience. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Donald Trump barred from conservative gathering after latest barb
Donald Trump opened his mouth and now finds the door closed to him at a high-profile gathering of conservative activists. His latest incendiary comment, about one of the Fox News moderators from Thursday’s Republican presidential debate, has led to a scolding by the party and condemnation by organizers of the RedState Gathering. The billionaire businessman lashed out against Fox News’ Megyn Kelly for her questions during the campaign’s first debate. She had asked the candidate about his use of derogatory language toward women and whether it reflected the “temperament of a man we should elect as president.” Referring to Kelly’s questions, Trump told CNN in an interview late Friday, “There was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.” Soon after the interview aired, RedState‘s Erick Erickson booted Trump from the event’s Saturday lineup. “I just don’t want someone on stage who gets a hostile question from a lady and his first inclination is to imply it was hormonal. It just was wrong,” Erickson wrote on the RedState website. He said that “while Mr. Trump resonates with a lot of people with his bluntness, including me to a degree, there are just real lines of decency a person running for president should not cross.” Trump’s campaign was incensed — and unbowed. “This is just another example of weakness through being politically correct. For all of the people who were looking forward to Mr. Trump coming, we will miss you. Blame Erick Erickson, your weak and pathetic leader,” according to a campaign statement. The Republican National Committee, treading carefully about the current front-runner for the 2016 nomination, called on Trump to “immediately clarify” his comment and said it would “highly inappropriate” if Trump stood by his remarks. Trump needs “to understand that he is seeking the presidency of the United States now and that words do matter,” RNC spokesman Sean Spicer told NBC’s “Today” show on Saturday. “I’m hoping that Mr. Trump, because he does speak off the cuff, because he doesn’t ascribe to political correctness, was speaking in a way that wasn’t fully thought out,” Spicer said. Trump’s absence from Saturday’s program threatened to overshadow appearances by a number of his rivals, including former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. Erickson said he had invited Fox’s Kelly to attend in place of Trump in the evening. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Donald Trump: “I don’t recognize” insults of women
GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump says he can’t recall specifics of insulting women, though news reports paint a long history of him comparing women to animals. Trump said Friday he doesn’t recognize the words Fox News‘s Megyn Kelly used during a debate on Thursday. Kelly asked about him having called women “fat pigs,” “dogs,” “slobs,” and “disgusting animals.” In the debate, Trump joked that he was only referring to talk show host Rosie O’Donnell but didn’t deny having used the insults. “I don’t frankly have time for total political correctness,” Trump said during the debate. The issue is important because women are a majority of registered voters. On Friday, Trump questioned whether he actually used those insults. “You know, some of the statements she made about the women, I don’t recognize those words whatsoever,” Trump said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “We’re going to take a very serious look at it.” He said on MSNBC‘s “Morning Joe,” “Not that I’m an angel, by the way. But I don’t recognize those words, so you know, she was spewing out these words, and I’m sitting there. … We’re going to have it checked out.” In fact, news outlets have reported on the incidents Kelly mentioned. Trump wrote New York Times columnist Gail Collins that she had the “face of a dog,” the columnist wrote in 2011. Trump called a lawyer “disgusting” when she wanted a break to pump milk for her baby, The New York Times reported last month. Trump has called O’Donnell a “fat pig,” a “slob” and an “animal,” according to several published reports. Kelly also mentioned that Trump had once told a contestant on NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice it would be a pretty picture to see her on her knees. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
