The Slatest

Fox News Blasts Donald Trump’s “Extreme, Sick Obsession” With Megyn Kelly

Moderators Chris Wallace, Megyn Kelly, and Bret Baier before the Fox News–Google GOP Debate on Jan. 28, 2016 at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines, Iowa.  

Alex Wong/Getty Images

Fox News is done trying to be diplomatic with Donald Trump. Apparently no longer concerned about a possible boycott after all three remaining Republican hopefuls dropped out of a scheduled March 21 debate in Salt Lake City, the cable news network has decided to go all out in its defense of anchor Megyn Kelly. Fox News said Trump’s “vitriolic attacks against Megyn Kelly and his extreme, sick obsession with her is beneath the dignity of a presidential candidate.”

The apparent gloves-are-off statement came after Trump’s latest series of anti-Kelly tweets that began on Tuesday and continued into Friday with the real estate mogul calling on supporters to boycott her show. On Friday, Trump wrote on Twitter:

That tweet was apparently the last straw; Fox News released the following statement:

Donald Trump’s vitriolic attacks against Megyn Kelly and his extreme, sick obsession with her is beneath the dignity of a presidential candidate who wants to occupy the highest office in the land. Megyn is an exemplary journalist and one of the leading anchors in America. We’re extremely proud of her phenomenal work and continue to fully support her throughout every day of Trump’s endless barrage of crude and sexist verbal assaults. As the mother of three young children, with a successful law career and the second highest rated show in cable news, it’s especially deplorable for her to be repeatedly abused just for doing her job.

Later, the Trump campaign made it clear the candidate would not be backing down and had no intention of trying to make nice with Kelly, “a highly overrated reporter and anchor.” Spokeswoman Hope Hicks released a statement for the campaign:

Megyn Kelly is a highly overrated reporter and anchor that constantly disparages Mr. Trump with negative and inaccurate reports. Despite the fact he wants nothing to do with her and will not appear on her show due to her extremely biased reporting, much of the program is about him anyway on a nightly basis.

Unlike Megyn Kelly, who resorts to putting out statements via FOX News, Mr. Trump will continue to defend himself against the inordinate amount of unfair and inaccurate coverage he receives on her second-rate show each night.

Trump’s attacks on Kelly began at the first Republican presidential debate in August, when she asked the candidate about his past sexist comments. The next day, the candidate said that Kelly was out to get him: “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever.” He then refused to attend a second Fox debate in Iowa after the network did not bow to his demand that Kelly not participate. Things apparently cooled down enough for Trump to then participate in the March 3 debate.

On Tuesday though, it seems Trump had enough of the cease-fire and began sending out tweets against Kelly during the coverage of the primary results. The barrage of anti-Kelly tweets continued throughout the week.

Read more Slate coverage of the 2016 campaign.