COLUMBUS – Republican presidential candidates, including Ohio Gov. John Kasich, struggled for air over the weekend as real estate mogul Donald Trump sucked up much of the oxygen after comments he made about one of the moderators in Thursday night’s GOIP primary debate from Cleveland.
Trump gave a series of phoned-in television interviews on Sunday responding to the latest controversy surrounding his campaign: Widely panned comments criticizing Fox News personality Megyn Kelly.
Kasich and the other candidates were forced to spend part of their interview time talking about Trump, though most tried to steer the conversation back to their own messages.
“It’s most important for me to be able to tell people who I am…I’m kind of a positive guy, I want to lift people, I want everybody to be included,” Kasich told ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos, saying he would not let Trump be a distraction from his campaign.
This time Trump is under fire for telling CNN on Friday night that Kelly had “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever” during the first GOP debate.
He is refusing to apologize, saying that he doesn’t think he said anything wrong.
The billionaire said in a Monday interview on NBC’s “Today” that he didn’t get to complete his description about how he thought Kelly was being so angry toward him. He said his comment “wasn’t meant to be much of an insult.”
Kelly had questioned Trump’s history of insults directed at women during the debate. Donald Trump is showing no signs of curbing his battle with a Fox News television host, the Republican Party establishment and several presidential primary rivals who are accusing him of disrespecting women.
The remark cost him a prime-time speaking slot at an Atlanta conference where several other presidential candidates spoke to about 1,000 conservative activists.
The Trump campaign has retorted by calling the conference’s organizer a “total loser” who backs other “establishment losers.”
Even a former Trump campaign aide suggests that the businessman’s bid for the White House has become a side show.
Trump’s unconventional, insurgent campaign has excited many anti-establishment conservatives while confounding Republican Party leaders already facing the prospects of a bruising fight among 17 candidates.