GOP: How Not to Pursue Women’s Vote

Megyn Kelly (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

By George E. Curry
NNPA Editor-in-Chief

NEWS ANALYSIS

WASHINGTON (NNPA) – This is the kind of stuff that you can’t make up. During the first debate with front-runners for the Republican nomination to become president, Megyn Kelly, one of the moderators for Fox News, pressed Donald Trump on some clearly sexist comments he had made in the past.

However, it was later revealed that Kelly has a long history of “out-of-touch comments about minorities.” Reacting to Trump’s demeaning comments about Megyn Kelly, the host of a conservative gathering of GOP presidential candidates, disinvited Trump from the event.

But the host, Erick Erickson, had his own set of problems. He was described as exhibiting “a pattern of being disrespectful to women.”

Like I said, you can’t make up this kind of nonsense.

Debate night began badly for Trump and his supersized ego. He was booed out of the gate for refusing to declare that he will not run a third-party campaign for president should he fail to capture the Republican nomination.

In the first round of questioning, Kelly took direct aim at Trump.

KELLY: 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.”

(LAUGHTER)

Your Twitter account…

 TRUMP: Only Rosie O’Donnell.

(LAUGHTER)

 KELLY: No, it wasn’t.

(APPLAUSE)

Your Twitter account…

(APPLAUSE)

 TRUMP: Thank you.

 KELLY: For the record, it was well beyond Rosie O’Donnell.

 TRUMP: Yes, I’m sure it was.

 KELLY: 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?

 TRUMP: I think the big problem this country has is being politically correct.

(APPLAUSE)

I’ve been challenged by so many people, and I don’t frankly have time for total political correctness. And to be honest with you, this country doesn’t have time either. This country is in big trouble. We don’t win anymore. We lose to China. We lose to Mexico both in trade and at the border. We lose to everybody.

And frankly, what I say, and oftentimes it’s fun, it’s kidding. We have a good time. 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.

(APPLAUSE) 

The next day, Trump retweeted a comment calling Kelly a “bimbo” and in an interview with Don Lemon on CNN, Trump said, “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever,” which was widely interpreted as a reference to Kelly’s menstrual cycle.

Trump denied that, saying he meant Kelly’s “nose” when he said “wherever,” and “only a deviant would think anything else.”

Erick Erickson, an arch-conservative, disinvited Trump from his annual RedState Gathering (RSG), which was featuring Republican presidential contenders on August 8.

“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 his website. He explained 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.”

He invited Megyn Kelly to attend the event in Trump’s place.

To borrow one of Kelly’s phrases, she’s no saint. Media Matters, the watchdog group, published extensive research showing, “GOP Debate Moderator Megyn Kelly Has Long History of Offensive, Out-Of-Touch Comments About Minorities.” It noted, “Kelly Has Repeatedly Belittled Minority Concerns About Discrimination.”

For example, “During the December 11, 2013 edition of Fox News’ The Kelly File, Megyn Kelly insisted that Jesus and Santa Claus were ‘white,’ brushing past Fox host Jedediah Bila’s suggestion that a non-white Santa Claus makes non-white kids feel included in holiday celebrations.”

On May 20 of this year “Megyn Kelly criticized First Lady Michelle Obama’s commencement speech at the historically black Tuskegee University, arguing her recollection of racial discrimination played into a ‘culture of victimization.’”

The following month, “Kelly questioned whether a white McKinney, Texas police officer’s excessive use of force while arresting a 14-year-old black girl at a pool party was a ‘race thing…where is the evidence that this is a race thing, not an excessive force thing?’ Kelly added, ‘The girl was no saint, either.’”

On March 10, 2015, “Kelly downplayed a Department of Justice report that found racial bias and stereotyping in the Ferguson, Missouri Police Department. Kelly said it is unfair to ‘tar the entire organization’ because ‘there are very few companies in America, whether they are public or private’ where ‘you won’t find any racist emails [or] any inappropriate comments.’”

After disinviting Trump from his political event over his treatment of Kelly, it was revealed that Erick Erickson holds stereotypical views of women.

On May 30, 2013, he said on his website, Redstate.com: “We should not kid ourselves or scream so loudly in politically correct outrage to drown the truth – kids most likely will do best in households where they have a mom at home nurturing them while dad is out bringing home the bacon,” according to Media Matters.

Responding to the controversy over Ginni Rometty, the CEO of IBM, being denied admission to the Augusta National Golf Club because of her gender, Erickson said in 2012, “Who cares that she wasn’t invited into the club? She’s a woman. Women aren’t allowed.”

Following a controversial anti-abortion ad aired during the 2010 Super Bowl, Erickson tweeted, “That’s what the feminazis were enraged over? Seriously?!? Wow. That’s what being too ugly to get a date does to your brain.”

After the 2012 Democratic National Convention showcased a long line of women, including Michelle Obama, Erickson said, “First night of the Vagina Monologues in Charlotte going as expected.”

One woman was deeply offended by the fact that Lou Dobbs assembled an all-male panel to discuss a report in 2013 finding an increase in women who were the high earners of their family.

According to Media Matters, “During that conversation, Erickson said that ‘when you look at biology’ the ‘male typically is the dominant role.’

The woman said she found Erickson’s remarks about male dominance “ offensive.” Her name? Megyn Kelly.