The detente between Donald Trump and the Fox News Channel may be over, with the Republican presidential front-runner repeatedly calling FNC’s star host Megyn Kelly “crazy” in a series of tweets this week, followed by a call Friday night for a boycott of her show:
Everybody should boycott the @megynkelly show. Never worth watching. Always a hit on Trump! She is sick, & the most overrated person on tv.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 18, 2016
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In a statement to TVNewser, a Fox News spokesperson accused Trump of “vitriolic attacks” on Kelly, and said the candidate’s “extreme, sick obsession with her is beneath the dignity of a presidential candidate who wants to occupy the highest office in the land.”
Trump has repeatedly clashed with Kelly since the first Republican presidential debate, when Trump objected to Kelly’s tough questions–including asking the candidate to defend his history of making sexist and degrading comments about women.
In recent months, Trump has backed out of a FNC-hosted GOP debate, and previously called on his supporters to boycott The Kelly File.
Fox News, meanwhile, has accused Trump’s campaign manager of threatening Kelly, and Roger Ailes has called on the candidate to apologize to Kelly.
The Fox News statement, in full:
“Donald Trump’s vitriolic attacks against Megyn Kelly and his extreme, sick obsession with her is beneath the dignity of a presidential candidate who wants to occupy the highest office in the land. Megyn is an exemplary journalist and one of the leading anchors in America — we’re extremely proud of her phenomenal work and continue to fully support her throughout every day of Trump’s endless barrage of crude and sexist verbal assaults. As the mother of three young children, with a successful law career and the second highest rated show in cable news, it’s especially deplorable for her to be repeatedly abused just for doing her job.”