Why Everyone Should Watch Thursday’s GOP Debate, Especially Liberals
“I refuse to call Megyn Kelly a bimbo, because that would not be politically correct. Instead I will only call her a lightweight reporter!”
And so began Donald Trump’s Wednesday morning tweets, and continued his months-long hissy fit over being treated “unfairly” in the first Fox debate back in August.
It’s hard to imagine anyone has forgotten the time a presidential candidate threatened a journalist on stage during a nationally televised debate, but over time the insults Trump has lobbed at Megyn Kelly have begun to run together.
“Mr. Trump, one of the things people love about you is that 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…” Kelly began on August 6, 2015 before Trump interrupted.
“Only Rosie O’Donnell.”
“No, it wasn’t,” she corrected, before finishing the question. “For the record it was well beyond Rosie O’Donnell. Your Twitter account has several disparaging comments about womens 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 is the likely democratic nominee, that you are part of the war on women?”
Donald’s response: He doesn’t have time for political correctness, besides he has fun when he ‘jokes’ about women and for good measure he added, “I’ve been nice to you although I could probably maybe not be.” Which as we have all learned since means Donald Trump will definitely not be nice to you.
Within days Trump had accused Kelly of being ill-tempered and said she was probably ‘bleeding from her wherever’ during the debate. And while he said this morning that he wouldn’t call her a bimbo, that hasn’t stopped him from re-tweeting others who have done just that in the past. Since August he’s called her ‘overrated,’ ‘dopey,’ said the show she headlines on Fox was better in her absence, implied that a post-debate vacation was because Kelly was emotionally shaken from having gone head-to-head with him and taken credit for her career success…. among other things. Nor has it stopped Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, from leveling threats against Kelly should Fox News not agree to remove her as moderator of tomorrow night’s debate.
Fox reports that in a call to executives meant to persuade them to drop Kelly Lewandoski said Kelly had a ‘rough couple of days after that last debate’ and he ‘would hate to have her go through that again.’
Fortunately, Fox News has not given in to Trump’s demands and, as of the writing of this piece, they intend to broadcast a Trump-free debate with Kelly as moderator.
Many in the media are calling this a result of Trump’s ‘feud’ with Kelly, but that’s a gross mischaracterization of the actual events leading up to today. Kelly asked Donald a tough question in the first Fox debate back in August and she didn’t back down when he tried to deny it. That’s not a feud, that’s journalism. Since then he has lobbed insult after insult at — regardless of what you may think of her or her network — one of the most successful female journalists of our time, and she has consistently refused to engage with him. Now he doesn’t want to come to the debate because, as he put it, “I don’t like her.”
This is not a feud. This is, plain and simple, a weak man being intimidated by a strong woman. Trump feels entitled to power over Kelly because she is a woman, and he’s throwing a tantrum because for — perhaps the first time in his life — neither the beautiful woman he wants to command nor her “keepers” are giving it to him.
Trump’s happiest when he’s busy stroking his own ego and a large part of that favorite pasttime comes from his ability to, as he has put it, “bring the ratings.” It’s been his claim to fame throughout the campaign cycle thus far and it’s the leverage both he and his campaign manager have tried to use to oust Kelly as moderator for this debate.
Within hours of confirming his plan to skip the debate Trump had tweeted, “Pathetic attempt by @foxnews to try to build up ratings. Without me they’d have no ratings.” A sentiment echoed by Lewandowski on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” today, “Maybe Fox was going to have a 20- or 25-million-person debate. But without Mr. Trump’s participation, I think they may have a 1 or 2-million-person debate.”
No one wants to watch another debate right now, but in this climate of carnival-politics the simple act of turning on your TV and devices may, in fact, be one of the biggest political messages you can send — at least until the polls open in your state. And because liberals are the least likely to tune in anyway, and therefore most capable of making a big difference in ratings, this is especially true for them. Regardless of your politics, you don’t have to watch it. Turn it on, turn off the sound and do something else while it runs its course in the background. Give the debate and Megyn Kelly — symbolically women in general — the ratings Trump thinks only he can bring.
If for no other reason, simply because Megyn Kelly does not have a “feud” with Donald Trump, she is his kryptonite and the ratings are his achilles heel.
