Bill O'Reilly wants Donald Trump to be the bigger man in his ongoing feud with Fox News, but Trump is promising an "eye for an eye" instead.
The "O'Reilly Factor" host was trying to convince the GOP frontrunner to join Thursday night's debate in Iowa despite his dislike for Megyn Kelly, the Fox News host who will be one of the event's moderators.
O'Reilly even tried appealing to Trump's Christian faith, something the candidate has spoken of frequently in an effort to woo evangelical voters.
"In your Christian faith, there is a very significant tenet and that's the tenet of forgiveness," O'Reilly said.
"I think you should be the bigger man," O'Reilly added. "Don't you think that's the right thing to do?"
"It probably is," Trump agreed. "But y'know it's called an eye for an eye. I guess also you can look at it that way."
"No, no, no," O'Reilly countered. "That's Old Testament. If you're the Christian, the eye-for-the-eye rule goes out. Here's what it is: Turning the other cheek."
O'Reilly physically turned his cheek and patted himself to show what he meant:
Trump brushed off the appeal to his faith and instead plugged his event Thursday night for the Wounded Warrior Project, which he will be doing instead of participating in the GOP debate.
Trump has been hurling insults at Kelly since the first Fox News debate, when she asked about his history of making sexist comments, and he didn't let up during the O'Reilly interview.
"I have zero respect for Megyn Kelly, I don't think she's very good at what she does, I think she's highly overrated," Trump said.
He also continued the attacks on Twitter:
On Tuesday, Fox News accused Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski of threatening Kelly as he lobbied to have her removed from the debate.
"In a call on Saturday with a Fox News executive, Lewandowski stated that Megyn 'had a rough couple days after that last debate' and he 'would hate to have her go through that again,'" the network said in a statement.
Fox said Kelly would remain a moderator.
"We can't give into terrorizations toward any of our employees," the network said.
Note to our readers: Donald Trump is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist, birther and bully who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims -- 1.6 billion members of an entire religion -- from entering the U.S.
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