Megyn Kelly made an appearance at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit, and was asked about what she learned from her “encounter” with Donald Trump.
In case you missed it, Kelly and Trump became involved in a public feud after a recent Republican debate in which Kelly called out Trump for calling women “fat pigs,” “dogs,” “blobs,” and “disgusting animals,” to which he replied, “Only Rosie O’Donnell.”
Kelly responded, “No it wasn’t….for the record, it was well beyond Rosie O’Donnell…Your Twitter account has several disparaging comments about women’s looks. You once told a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice it would be a pretty picture to see her on her knees. Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president, and how will you answer the charge from Hillary Clinton, who is likely to be he Democratic nominee, that you are part of the war on women?”
Trump’s response to that was, “I think the big problem this country has is being politically correct. I’ve been challenged by so many people, I don’t frankly have time for total political correctness, and to be honest with you, this country doesn’t have time either. This country is in big trouble. We don’t win anymore. We lose to China. We lose to Mexico, both in trade and at the border. We lose to everybody, and frankly what I say…and oftentimes it’s fun, it’s kidding, we have a good time…what I say is what I say. And honestly, Megyn, if you don’t like it, I’m sorry. I’ve been very nice to you, although I could probably maybe not be based on the way that you have treated me, but I wouldn’t do that. But you know what? We need strength. We need energy. We need quickness, and we need brain in this country to turn it around. That I can tell you right now.”
To catch up, you can watch the exchange here:
Following the debate, things only escalated as Trump proceeded to talk about Kelly on Twitter.
Do you ever notice that lightweight @megynkelly constantly goes after me but when I hit back it is totally sexist. She is highly overrated!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 23, 2015
Fast forward to the Most Powerful Women Summit, and Kelly had this to say: “Well, it’s clear we may have overestimated his anger management skills [laughs], but I’ll says this: It is not as though I didn’t anticipate that he might not like that question, right, because he had already made clear in different circumstances that he didn’t like to be tested in certain ways.”
“The reason I asked that was not a comment on Megyn Kelly,” she said. “It was a comment on his electability and what he’s likely to hear from Hillary Clinton. Should he become the nominee? And you’re already hearing that from Hillary Clinton. So, you know, that’s what I get paid to do is anticipate the candidate’s weaknesses and then poke ’em. That’s our job, and it does require a certain amount of fearlessness…but it’s not like I was looking to make an example out of Donald Trump. If you listen to the electability questions, that was the first round of questions we did. Each one of us had an electability question for each of the candidates. You listen to what Brett asked, what Chris asked, what I asked my other guys, and they were tough questions. No one was given a pass. I mean some of them were hard to ask, you know, because you don’t want to personally embarrass anybody with their weaknesses, but by the same token, these guys want George Washington’s job…like, sorry, but you put yourself into this. You have a job to do, which is answer tough questions, and I have a job to do, which is ask them.”
Watch the video below.
Either way, Trump appears quite ready to take on Clinton. He tweeted today:
The debate last night proved that Hillary is running against the “B” team. She won’t be so lucky when it comes to me!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 14, 2015
He’s also currently taking on Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler:
Steven Tyler got more publicity on his song request than he’s gotten in ten years. Good for him!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 14, 2015