Washington : Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, who is facing flak for his “sexiest” remarks against a woman TV anchor, has fired his top political adviser who, however, insisted that he had quit himself due to the real-estate tycoon’s “trash-talking”. Trump, who delivered an explosive performance during the first prime-time Republican presidential debate on Fox News, said he fired his top advisor Roger Stone.
“Mr Trump fired Roger Stone last night. We have a tremendously successful campaign and Roger wanted to use the campaign for his own personal publicity. He has had a number of articles about him recently and Mr Trump wants to keep the focus of the campaign on how to Make America Great Again,” his campaign spokesperson said in a statement. A veteran political consultant, Stone however shot back, saying he resigned and was not fired. Stone said his resignation was spurred by Trump’s decision to continue trash-talking Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly after Thursday night’s debate.
“Sorry @realDonaldTrump didn’t fire me – I fired Trump. Diasagree with diversion to food fight with @megynkelly away core issue messages,” Stone tweeted yesterday. Stone, a former aide to President Richard Nixon who has known Trump for several decades, helped with the candidate’s debate preparations.
The working relationship between Stone and Trump became strained when Trump made controversial comments about Kelly in an interview with the CNN. “You can see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever,” Trump said, suggesting that the woman presidential debate moderator was tough on him because she was menstruating.
Trump, who has been in media limelight for his controversial statements ever since he declared his presidential candidacy, faced backlash from various sections including his own Republican party over the remarks he made about Kelly, who was one of the three journalists to host the primary debate.
Sticks to guns over ‘blood’ remark
Donald Trump stuck to his guns as he took on the party establishment concerned over its fallout. The real estate mogul said he did “nothing wrong whatsoever” by criticising Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, and only a sick person would say that his remark on “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her – wherever” during Thursday night’s debate meant she was having her period.
“Who would say that?” Trump said. “Do you think I’d make a statement like that? Who would make a statement like that? Only a sick person would even think about that.”
“I cherish women,” he said, but offered no apology for his remark about Kelly a day after the debate and blamed his Republican presidential opponents for fanning the flames of controversy, and claimed that he meant to refer to her “nose and/or ears” — not a woman’s period. “Only a deviant would say that what I said was what they were referring to. Because nobody would make that statement. You almost have to be sick to put that together,” he said.
Lalit K Jha
