Trump makes 'blood' truce with Fox then says he is top candidate for women

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/11/donald-trump-megyn-kelly-fox-women

Version 0 of 1.

After days of public sniping from Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump about the Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, the real estate mogul and the king-making conservative network seem to have reached an uneasy truce after private diplomacy.

Related: Trump may say misogynist things, but other Republican candidates do them | Jessica Valenti

Indeed, Trump appears to have successfully endured a controversial weekend after many believed he implied that Kelly asked tough questions during the first Republican debate because she was menstruating.

The first evidence of the detente came after a high-level phone call, as Trump appeared on Tuesday’s Fox & Friends morning show, where he was interviewed by host Steve Doocy – without being questioned about Kelly, or much other than his tough stance on Isis and Iran.

Minutes later, Trump spoke to CNN, where he said he would “be so good to women”, spoke about his positions on abortion and equal pay, and called those who had interpreted his comments about Kelly negatively as “deviant”.

“I cherish women, I will be so good to women, I will work hard to protect women and I tell you what – work hard to protect everybody,” Trump said, before pivoting to the Iran nuclear deal. Trump also attempted to tie Jeb Bush’s recent gaffe on women’s health to 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s infamous “47%” remarks that felled his campaign.

Related: Clinton laughs off Trump to condemn 'radical' Republican views on women

“There will be no better candidate to women,” Trump said on CNN. Less than 24 hours earlier, Hillary Clinton had dismissed his comments about Kelly as “offensive”; Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO who is surging in the Republican primary, used similar language on Sunday.

Despite days of criticism for Trump from both parties, his poll numbers have not dropped. Internet surveys conducted since Trump made misogynistic comments when asked about his own misogyny – while less sophisticated than phone surveys yet to be released – show him holding a double-digit lead over Jeb Bush (according to Reuters) and Ted Cruz (NBC), while surging ahead since the debate in a new poll from Morning Consult:

Latest GOP Polls (Morning Consult) Trump 32% Bush 11% Carson 9% Walker 6% Rubio 6% pic.twitter.com/IvBKEd2WVA

The feud began on Friday, Trump told CNN that Kelly had “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever”.

The comments were considered serious enough that he was disinvited from a major gathering of conservative activists. Trump used essentially the same defense in a series of interviews on Sunday.

Returning to his preferred medium of television on Monday, he continued the self-defense to CNN’s Chris Cuomo.

“Hey, look – I went to the hardest school to get in, the best school, the Wharton School [of the University of Pennsylvania] – it’s like super-genius stuff … Who would make a statement like that? I didn’t make a statement like that. I’ve always been good to women.”

Pushed on his policies about women’s health, Trump also said that he could “take care of it” better than Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner.

“I know my capability, and I think I know her capability, and I’m much more capable that she is,” Trump said.

He also distinguished himself from his fellow Republican contenders, when he said he did not believe in abortion – except when a mother’s life is in danger, she has been raped or is the victim of incest. He also said he would consider an equal pay law.

“The concept of it, I love. I just don’t want it to be a negative where everybody ends up making the same pay because that’s not our system,” said Trump. He said he was unsure of such gender equity laws, because “without being rich again, we’re not going to make [America] great again”.

Asked specifically whether he had made a deal with Fox that he and Kelly would not publicly continue their feud, Trump did not deny that he had, adding that he had “no problems” with Fox News.

“This is not about Megyn Kelly,” he said.

The dustup with Fox ended after Trump received a phone call from Fox News chairman Roger Ailes.

Ailes described the phone call as “blunt but cordial” in a statement on Monday evening. “Donald Trump and I spoke today. We discussed our concerns, and I again expressed my confidence in Megyn Kelly,” Ailes said, describing Kelly as “a brilliant journalist” whom he supports “100%”.

Kelly, publicly addressing the row for the first time on her show Monday evening, said she and Trump “agree to disagree” but that apologies would not be exchanged on either side.

“Apparently, Mr Trump thought the question I asked was unfair and felt I was attacking him. I felt he was asked a tough, but fair question. We agree to disagree,” she said, adding: “I certainly won’t apologize for doing good journalism.”

Kelly has received rare praise from across the political spectrum. Though the most recent polls have small sample sizes and use online polling (controversial among statisticians), Trump appears to be leading at between 23% and 32% of potential Republican voters, according to an NBC and Morning Consult polls.

Still, Trump’s comments have provided a jumping-off point for Clinton to criticize the entire Republican field.

“I thought what he said was offensive, and I certainly think it deserves the kind of reaction that it’s getting from so many others,” Clinton said of the remarks about Kelly, before criticizing the wider Republican field. “But I think if we’re focusing on that we’re making a mistake.”

Trump is scheduled to appear on Fox News in primetime on Tuesday, with personality Sean Hannity.