Donald Trump’s campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination may well be on the path towards implosion, going by the sharp reaction within the Grand Old Party and across social media to the property mogul’s derogatory remarks about women before, during, and after the debate held last week in Cleveland, Ohio.
Mr. Trump appeared to vent his ire towards debate host, conservative Fox News commentator Megyn Kelly, when he lashed out at her for questioning him aggressively during the debate.
In an interview with CNN on Friday Mr. Trump said Ms. Kelly had “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever” during their exchange in Cleveland.
After this comment sparked a furore by women’s rights advocates across the board Mr. Trump on Sunday insisted that he did not imply that “menstruation” caused Ms. Kelly to ask him certain provocative questions.
Refusing to apologise for this remark in a second interview with CNN , he instead outlined some of his academic credentials saying, “Do you think I’d make a stupid statement like that? Only a sick person would even think about that,” he said.
The controversy was sparked on Thursday in the heat of the debate when Ms. Kelly asked Mr. Trump, “You've called women fat pigs, dogs, slobs, disgusting animals. Your Twitter account has several…”
Mr. Trump interjected with a raised his finger and an amused expression saying, “Only Rosie O'Donnell,” a reference to a well-known U.S. comedian and actress.
This week the controversy over Mr. Trump — who was leading all 16 other candidates in five major opinion polls and thus garnered pole position in the debate — prompted Republican strategists to question whether his campaign continued to remain credible.
CNN quoted Pete Seat, a former aide to President George W. Bush saying, “Politicians have survived plenty of unfortunate statements and events, but Trump is turning his greatest asset into a weakness. Flippant comments eventually catch up with you.”
Mr. Seat added that in effect Mr. Trump was making “considerable in-kind contributions” to the campaign of Democratic Party frontrunner and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton through his comments.
