Donald Trump defended his record with women and recent controversial comments about Fox News host Megyn Kelly on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” Sunday, saying he’s had an “amazing” relationship with female employees.
Trump also refused to apologize to Kelly, standing by his comment that she had “blood coming out of her wherever,” saying when pressed by Stephanopoulos that people “should not have taken it another way.”
Trump: I have always had a great relationship to the women. The relationship has been amazing. Thousands of employees, top level employees. You know George, I was one of the first people in the construction industry to put women in charge of major construction projects and my relationship has been great. Carly Florina, you know she’s a lot fun. But, she doesn’t discuss the fact that her tenure at Hewlett-Packard was a disaster. She then ran for the Senate, which nobody even talks about, and she lost by a landslide. And other than that I wish her well, she’s a very nice person.
Stephanopoulos: So, no apologies to Megyn Kelly? You don’t think you crossed the line there?
Trump: No, not at all. look, she asked me a very nasty question, I have nothing against Megyn Kelly, but she asked me a very, very nasty question, and in the middle of her questioning, I brought up a statement — Rosie O’Donnell — and the entire place, the biggest combination of laughter and applause. The place went crazy. It interrupted her question. It obviously shook her up a little bit. But she was angry, you could see it. I made the statement, ‘blood was pouring from her eyes,’ and then I said, ‘blood was pouring from wherever,’ when I said that, I wanted to get… excuse me, George, I was referring to nose, ears, a very common statement, and only a deviant would think of what people said…
Stephanopoulos: I mean, it was widely seen as that. I mean…
Trump: No, they built that up, George, they built it up. Like only literally a sick person would think that. And the only reason I even stopped… Because I wanted to get on to the next subject, which I think was jobs which was much more important to me. But I wanted to get on so I stop, rather than saying nose or ears… that’s common. What it means is, a person is angry. She was very angry. I didn’t want to finish the statement, and I stopped the statement short.
Stephanopoulos: You explained what you meant to say, but that is not what you said. Many people took it another way, but I do want to get into this, your relationship with women.
Trump: George, they should not have taken it another way.