Taking on the Fox News stranglehold on the Republican Party, 69-year-old real estate mogul and reality TV star Donald Trump refused to back down from incendiary comments about 44-year-old Fox News moderator Megyn Kelly. Kelly and her Fox News moderators Chris Wallace and Bret Bair, went after Trump in the Aug. 6 debate, prompting conservative media radio icon Rush Limbaugh to call Fox News treatment of Trump a “set up.” Gunning for Trump after he surged ahead in the GOP polls commanding a whopping lead at 24%, at least 10% above his nearest challenger former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Kelly, Wallace and Bair were merely pawns of Fox News President Roger Ailes. While Trump takes Kelly’s questions personally, Limbaugh points out it was part of a carefully planned strategy in the first debate to knock Trump out of the GOP race.
Commenting about Kelly’s provocative questions to CNN, Trump said she spewed blood from her eyes and elsewhere, prompting a rash of denunciations by the GOP’s conservative establishment. Second tier candidate, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, called Trumps remarks “vulgar,” not befitting of a man or woman seeking the presidency. Fiorina pounced on the chance to gain traction in the polls, hoping to make it to the first tier at the Sept. 16 GOP debate at the Reagan Library. Trump’s refusal to apologize to Kelly or anyone else, stems from what Rush called a “set up.” Fox News dealt from the bottom-of-the-deck, asking Trump only questions designed to impeach his credibility. Kelly surely knows that whatever comments Trump made on NBC’s “Celebrity Apprentice” were purely entertainment, not reflecting his actual views toward women.
When Bret Bair asked all 10 GOP participants at the start of the debate to raise their hands if they couldn’t eventually support the nominee of the Party, only Trump raised his hand. Stating honestly he couldn’t say whom he’d support, the Fox News moderators went for the jugular. It wasn’t that long ago that Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus asked Trump July 9 to “tone it down,” despite unrelenting attacks by Trump’s GOP challengers. RNC planners never anticipated the positive response to Trump, propelling him to the top of the GOP heap. RNC darlings, like Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fl.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), all yawned in the Aug. 6 debate. Paul was so shrill confronting New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Trump, it’s hard to imagine he can return to the debate stage. Paul looked like screeching teenager.
Trump didn’t know what to expect heading into the first GOP debate, at least 10% above his nearest rival. When he was blindsided by Fox News moderators Kelly, Wallace and Bair, he realized, after it was all over, the RNC planned his unceremonious demise. Conservative talks show host Mark Levin ripped Fox News for wasting precious air-time on such trivial topics like, Trump’s past statements toward women, business bankruptcies, completely unrelated to the nation’s grave domestic and foreign policy problems. Paul tried to call Trump on the GOP’s longstanding opposition to a single-payer health system. Instead of reminding Paul he backs Medicare and Medicaid, the government’s single payer health systems for the elderly, disabled and the poor, Trump told Paul he was having “a hard time,” after misstating his position to find a better private system alternative to Obamacare.
Kelly defended her questions to Trump, not admitting she was told by Fox News what questions to ask. “He felt attacked. It wasn’t an attack. It was a fair question. But I get it. He’s in the arena and so am I. It’s OK with me that there is some consternation. He will get over that,” Kelly told Fox News there were no hard feelings. Admitting, “he’s in the arena and so am I,” Kelly essentially confessed she was a Fox News’ soldier on a mission to torpedo Trump. Kelly shows exactly why Fox News has become the most pernicious propaganda machine masquerading as a “news organization.” Kelly crossed the line, breaching her journalistic ethics that she remains impartial, objective and nonpartisan. She openly admitted that she’s “in the arena,” battling what she sees as a liberal wrapped in GOP clothing. Shame on Kelly and Fox News, as Limbaugh said, for setting up Trump.
Trump’s the first GOP candidate to expose the dirty secret about Roger Ailes’s Fox News: That it’s the media wing of the most conservative elements of the Republican Party. Refusing to back down, Trump put RNC Chairman into such a dilemma he cancelled scheduled visits on today’s national TV news shows. Priebus cancelled because he can’t explain conservative icon Rush Limbaugh’s belief that Trump was “set up” by Fox News and Megyn Kelly’s admission “she’s in the arena.” Trump learned first hand that Fox News has a dog in the fight for GOP nominee—and he’s not Fox News’ darling. Unable to pigeonhole him as a religious or social conservative, Trump doesn’t fit into a convenient Fox News box, far closer to the GOP politics of Barry Goldwater, Nelson Rockefeller or even President Ronald Reagan. Trump’s battle with Fox News is over the heart-and-soul of the GOP.
