Donald Trump jab at Megyn Kelly may be beginning of end for GOP frontrunner

By The Guardian

Mogul insists he did not imply debate anchor was menstruating. Seeks to link Jeb Bush comment on women’s health to Romney ‘47%’ gaffe.

In a series of interviews on Sunday, Donald Trump insisted that he did not imply that menstruation caused Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly to question him aggressively during Thursday’s Republican presidential debate.

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Trump declined any offer of a chance to apologize for the remark, and instead sought to focus attention on Jeb Bush, the establishment favorite, for remarks he made about federal spending on women’s health this week.

The latest Trump controversy began on Friday night, when he said in an interview with CNN that Kelly had “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever” while she questioned him at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, on issues including his past statements about women.

Speaking to CNN again on Sunday, the real-estate mogul and poll frontrunner recited his academic credentials and asked: “Do you think I’d make a stupid statement like that?”

Most people did think so – and the comment prompted an immediate backlash on the right. The conservative radio host Erick Erickson revoked an invitation to appear at the RedState Gathering, a major conference of conservative activists in Atlanta. 

In a late-night interview on Friday, Erickson said that when he approached the Trump campaign for clarification, it “wouldn’t deny” that the comment was about menstruation. In Erickson’s opinion, the remark “crossed a line of decency no one running for president should ever cross, whether you are a professional or amateur politician”.

Trump has since strenuously denied that his comment was about menstruation. Appearing on NBC on Sunday, he said he had initially wanted to say blood was coming out of Kelly’s eyes and nose, but then decided he “wanted to move on to the next statement”, causing to say “her wherever”.

Asked if he even wanted to apologize to anyone who might have misconstrued his comment, Trump said: “I don’t want to say that. I apologize when I’m wrong.” He then insisted his use of the blood metaphor was “a very common statement” and that anyone who construed it to be a reference to menstruation was “deviant”.

Rivals for the Republican presidential nomination disagreed. Former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina, the only woman in the 17-strong field, told CNN: “Women understood that comment. And yes, it is offensive.”

Bush, who trails Trump in the polls, told attendees at RedState on Saturday: “What Donald Trump said is wrong.”

The question now is whether this marks the bursting of Trump’s bubble. He has risen to the top of the polls despite, or perhaps because of, a series of controversial remarks.

Trump kicked off his campaign by saying illegal immigrants from Mexico were rapists. He also said the 2008 Republican nominee John McCain, who was imprisoned and tortured in Vietnam for five and a half years, “was not a war hero” and gave out the personal phone number of a rival, South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham.

Each controversy was followed only by an improved position in the polls, leading to Trump taking center stage at the Cleveland debate.

However, his latest remarks, combined withturmoil within his campaign – on Saturday a key aide, Roger Stone, left Trump amidst confusion over who initiated the split – and a noticeable souring in his relationship with Fox News, signal that this could be the moment Trump’s candidacy does indeed start to implode.

This would please many in the Republican establishment. On Saturday, the strategist Liz Mair told the Guardian: “He has been a problem child as a Republican candidate and the faster he self-immolates the better for the party.”