WASHINGTON — The head of Fox News Channel on Tuesday called on Donald Trump to apologize for his latest “verbal assaults” on network star Megyn Kelly, but the GOP front-runner refused.
Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes blasted Trump for his Monday night Twitter tirade against Kelly, in which he said her prime-time show, “The Kelly File,” “was better without Megyn Kelly.” Trump also retweeted a message calling her 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,” Ailes said in a statement. “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’s attack on Kelly is “as unacceptable as it is disturbing,” Ailes said.
Trump didn’t back down, just as he didn’t following his jabs at Kelly after the GOP debate.
“No, I would not apologize,” Trump said in Dubuque, Iowa. “She should probably apologize to me, but I just don’t care.”
He stood behind his “bimbo” retweet, telling reporters, “I retweet for a reason.”
Kelly, meanwhile, made light of the fracas on her show Tuesday night, wisecracking that it was her husband Douglas Brunt’s birthday, and “I bought him a Donald Trump tie.”
Trump’s press conference turned bizarre Tuesday when Univision reporter Jorge Ramos repeatedly interrupted to ask Trump about immigration.
“Sit down!” Trump shouted before having Ramos escorted out briefly by security.
Later, during a wide-ranging speech, Trump alternately called for the outlawing of TelePrompTers, praised China’s leaders as smarter than ours, and insisted he loves Saudis — because they buy a lot of his apartments.