Fox News boss Roger Ailes called out Donald Trump Tuesday after Trump launched another attack aimed at Fox star Megyn Kelly.
As Kelly returned from a vacation on Monday night, Trump took to Twitter to attack Kelly with a barrage of tweets that included claiming the show was better without her.
I liked The Kelly File much better without @megynkelly. Perhaps she could take another eleven day unscheduled vacation!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2015
Trump went on to tweet or retweet comments attacking Kelly's looks, calling her a bimbo and saying she had no clue.
That prompted Ailes and several Fox personalities to come to her defense. On Tuesday Ailes released a statement calling on Trump to end his public attacks on Kelly:
Donald Trump's surprise and unprovoked attack on Megyn Kelly during her show last night is as unacceptable as it is disturbing. 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. I could not be more proud of Megyn for her professionalism and class in the face of all of Mr. Trump’s verbal assaults.
Ailes went on to say that Kelly's questioning of Trump was tough but fair and then called on Trump to apologize.
Donald Trump rarely apologizes, although in this case, he should. 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. All of our journalists will continue to report in the fair and balanced way that has made FOX News Channel the number one news network in the industry.
Trump was having none of it, sending an almost immediate response to CNN's Brian Stelter saying he disagrees with Ailes:
I totally disagree with the Fox statement. I do not think Megyn Kelly is a quality journalist. I think her questioning of me, despite all of the polls saying I won the debate, was very unfair. 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.
Plenty of Fox personalities came to the defense of Kelly, on-air and on social media including Sean Hannity who has hosted Trump many times including during his feud with Kelly:
My friend @realDonaldTrump has captured the imagination of many. Focus on Hillary, Putin, border, jobs, Iran China & leave @megynkelly alone
— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) August 25, 2015
In another Tweet responding to criticism from a Trump fan, Hannity pointed out that it has been 19 days since the GOP debate and issues such as ISIS, Putin, China and the economy are more important.
