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August 10, 2015 at 01:16 PM
(Bloomberg Politics) — Donald Trump continued attacking Fox News debate moderator Megyn Kelly on Monday, saying that she and her colleagues did not ask him the same caliber of questions as they did the other candidates.
“I was not asked about jobs,” Trump said on NBC’s Today Show. “I was not asked about, you know, nuclear. I was not asked about all of the problems—I wasn’t asked about things that other people were asked about.”
Trump added that other candidates came up to him during the debate to say that Kelly’s question regarding his disparaging comments about women was “absolutely out of line,” though Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks did not immediately respond Monday to a request to name the candidates in question.
On Friday, meanwhile, Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes lavished his anchors with praise.”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.”
Reviewing the questions that were asked directly to Trump—excluding the opening exchange by moderator Bret Baier for a pledge not to run as a third-party candidate—a transcript shows the network was “tough,” to use Ailes’ word. But were they unfair? Leaving aside the debate over Trump’s characterizationof Kelly’s demeanor (in which Trump said Kelly had “blood coming out of wherever”), here is the list of what the billionaire was asked:
1. Mr. Trump, one of the things people love about you is you speak your mind and you don’t use a politician’s filter. However, that is not without its downsides, in particular, when it comes to women. You’ve called women you don’t like “fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals.” … Your Twitter account has several disparaging comments about women’s looks. You once told a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice it would be a pretty picture to see her on her knees. Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president, and how will you answer the charge from Hillary Clinton, who was likely to be the Democratic nominee, that you are part of the war on women?
2. Mr. Trump, it has not escaped anybody’s notice that you say that the Mexican government, the Mexican government is sending criminals — rapists, drug dealers, across the border. Governor Bush has called those remarks, quote, “extraordinarily ugly.” I’d like you — you’re right next to him — tell us — talk to him directly and say how you respond to that and — and you have repeatedly said that you have evidence that the Mexican government is doing this, but you have evidence you have refused or declined to share. Why not use this first Republican presidential debate to share your proof with the American people?
2a. Mr. Trump, I’ll give you 30 seconds — I’ll give you 30 seconds to answer my question, which was, what evidence do you have, specific evidence that the Mexican government is sending criminals across the border? Thirty seconds.
