Trump Thumps Himself
As if we did not already know it before Fox News' Republican presidential debate in Cleveland, Donald Trump can dish out barbs against other people, but he can't take 'em.
"The questions to me were far tougher," he told reporters after the debate. "I didn't think they were appropriate. And I thought Megyn behaved very badly, personally."
Right. Shame on Megyn Kelly and her fellow Fox News anchors Bret Baier and Chris Wallace for accurately quoting Trump's own words back to him.
Apparently, everyone except Donald Trump expected Donald Trump to be the center of attention at Thursday's debate.
In much the same way that President Barack Obama looked surprisingly ill-prepared for his first debate with Republican Mitt Romney in 2012, Trump appeared to be even less prepared to be held accountable for his own pronouncements.
For example, Kelly early on asked Trump about his propensity to call women "fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals" and further asked, "Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president?"
If those sound like reasonable questions to ask a presidential candidate, well, you just don't see the world as clearly as they do on Planet Trump. Anyone who thought Fox News anchors would go soft on the Republican candidates was in for a surprise. The trio showed how real journalism quite often breaks out at the famously conservatively leaning channel -- and Trump didn't like it one bit.
Trump said onstage that he is running against "political correctness," which is a guaranteed applause line among conservatives who ignore their own conservative correctness.
"Wow," he tweeted afterwards, "@megynkelly really bombed tonight." He also described her as "totally overrated" and "angry."
That's Trump. Keep the trash talk flowing regardless of whatever is really going on. Wallace and Baier were chastised for asking about his flip-flops, particularly his past support for a single-payer health-care system. They also asked about his contributions to Hillary Clinton and his involvement with four companies that went bankrupt.
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