Trump Slams Univision Anchor At Iowa Event
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Donald Trump got into a heated confrontation with a Univision news anchor on the campaign trail Tuesday.
Univision anchor Jorge Ramos interrupted the Republican presidential front-runner to ask him about immigration. He said he had a question for Trump a question at the event in Dubuque, Iowa, but Trump said: "Excuse me, sit down."
Ramos protested that he had a right to ask a question, but Trump said Ramos had not been called and had no such right, and said, "Go back to Univision."
Ramos was then escorted from the event. But he later returned and was allowed to ask his question.
In June, Trump filed a $500 million lawsuit against Univision after the Spanish-language network terminated its relationship with Trump's Miss Universe Organization.
The suit claimed that Trump's First Amendment rights were violated when the company backed out of its contract to air the Miss USA contest – scheduled to be held in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on July 12.
The suit said Univision must broadcast the pageant in Spanish under the terms of its contract. While Univision said the decision to drop the pageant was only a response to Trump's June 16 speech announcing his candidacy for presidency, the suit claimed the decision was "a politically motivated attempt to suppress Mr. Trump's freedom of speech under the First Amendment," according to a news release.
The suit claimed the reason for the "attempt to suppress" Trump's freedom of speech is that Univision's owner supports Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.
When Trump announced his candidacy earlier this month, he said: "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. ... They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."
Also Tuesday, Fox News chief Roger Ailes said Trump owed the network's Megyn Kelly an apology for an unprovoked Twitter attack that ``is as unacceptable as it is disturbing.'' But Trump refused to backing down.
Trump had welcomed Kelly back from a vacation Monday night by tweeting that he liked her show better while she was away. Trump said Kelly ``must have had a terrible vacation'' because ``she's really off her game.'' He retweeted a message that referred to her as a bimbo.
``Megyn Kelly represents the very best of American journalism and all of us at Fox News Channel reject the crude and irresponsible attempts to suggest otherwise,'' said Ailes, the Fox News Channel chairman. ``I could not be more proud of Megyn for her professionalism and class in the face of all of Mr. Trump's verbal assaults.''
Trump, in a statement, said he disagreed with Ailes and that he doesn't think Kelly is a quality journalist. ``Hopefully in the future I will be proven wrong and she will be able to elevate her standards to a level of professionalism that a network such as Fox deserves.''
In a news conference later Tuesday in Dubuque, Iowa, Trump again refused to apologize to Kelly, saying, ``She should probably apologize to me, but I just don't care.''
He added, ``I think Fox treats me terribly.''
Trump has been attacking Kelly ever since her tough questioning of him during the first GOP presidential debate, seen by 24 million people on Fox on Aug. 6. A day after the debate, he said Kelly had ``blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.''
That led to a private, clear-the-air conversation between Ailes and Trump two weeks ago, but that clearly hasn't led to peace.
In his tweets, Trump repeated his contention that Kelly, host of a prime-time Fox News show and one of the network's biggest stars, was sent on an unplanned vacation that ended Monday. Fox said her time off had been scheduled long before the debate. Trump also tweeted that Kelly was afraid to confront a guest, Dr. Cornel West, and that she had ``no clue'' on immigration.
Ailes again backed Kelly for her questioning during the debate, which he said was tough but fair.
``Donald Trump rarely apologizes, although in this case, he should,'' Ailes said. ``We have never been deterred by politicians or anyone else attacking us for doing our job, much less allowed ourselves to be bullied by anyone and we're certainly not going to start now.''
Some of Kelly's Fox colleagues also came to her defense. Bret Baier, who moderated the debate with Kelly and Chris Wallace, tweeted that ``this needs to stop.'' Brian Kilmeade said on ``Fox & Friends'' that Trump's comments bothered him personally.
``We are all friends with Donald Trump, but he is totally out of bounds reigniting that fight,'' Kilmeade said. ``I don't know if he's trying to get ratings out of that or poll numbers, but he's not going to be successful.''
At his news conference, Trump got into another confrontation with a different anchor, Univision's Jorge Ramos. Trump initially had his security detail remove Ramos from the room, but Ramos returned later to ask some questions about immigration policy.
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