Fox host Megyn Kelly pressed Donald Trump’s campaign spokesman to explain why the candidate denied disparaging the looks of several of accusers ― something he clearly had done.
During an interview following the presidential debate on Wednesday, Kelly rejected the suggestion by Jason Miller, Trump’s senior communications adviser, that several women who recently came forward to accuse Trump of sexual assault were doing so for fame and to influence the election.
“These people didn’t come out when Mr. Trump was running ‘The Apprentice’ and had a 12 year run at the absolute top of the ratings. They didn’t come forward when he announced,” Miller said. The comment prompted Kelly to cut in and say, “They came forward after he said he likes to grab them by the crotch and then denied he’d ever done it.”
During the debate Wednesday, Trump denied that he’d claimed the women weren’t attractive enough for him to assault. But Kelly played several clips of the GOP nominee doing just that. Miller initially just tried to repeat that the accusations were false, but Kelly cut him off and asked him to explain why Trump had disparaged the looks of the women accusing him.
“He was clearly talking about their words,” Miller said. Kelly followed up by asking why Trump had specifically referred to looks. Miller again repeated that the claim wasn’t credible.
“You could tell from her face that she wasn’t credible?” Kelly asked. Miller then gave up trying to defend what his candidate had said.
“What people want to see is who’s gonna be the leader that’s gonna get this country back on track,” he said. “That’s what people want to talk about. They’re not talking about this, Megyn.”
Noting that Trump was struggling among women, Kelly followed up by asking whether calling Clinton a “nasty woman” during the debate would help him with women.
“He’s not alienating female voters,” Miller said.
Last year, Trump attacked Kelly after the first presidential debate, claiming she had treated him unfairly. Trump called Kelly a “bimbo” and suggested she was treating him unfairly because she was menstruating.
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.