Donald Trump has an election he's trying to win, but he still managed to take time out of his busy schedule today to help out an old friend enemy friend:
Hours after news broke that former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson had filed a "sexual harassment/retaliation" lawsuit against Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump appeared by phone for a rare interview on Carlson’s former show, The Real Story with Gretchen Carlson.
Trump appeared on The Real Story only twice from May 1, 2015, through May 3, 2016, for a total of 19 minutes and 13 seconds, according to a Media Matters analysis. By contrast, during the same period Trump spent more than eight hours on Fox & Friends and more than 17 hours on Hannity....
An hour before the news of Carlson’s complaint broke, Fox’s Kimberly Guilfoyle tweeted that she would be hosting the program, which would feature “special guest” Trump. As ThinkProgress’ Judd Legum noted, such a daytime Fox appearance is unusual for Trump, suggesting “an effort to spike ratings post-Carlson.”
Unusual for Trump to appear at 2. He usually does AM or primetime. Could be an effort to spike ratings post-Carlson. https://t.co/SQ8jC8DVRF
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) July 6, 2016
So presumably Ailes got in touch with Trump, gave his side of the story (that Carlson sued because he didn't renew her contract, a move he made strictly because she had low ratings); Trump agreed to help Ailes prove that the ratings in Carlson's old time slot are better without her -- by artificially pumping them up for her replacement. Whatever.
Trump is unhinged right now -- I missed his speech tonight, but I've seen excerpts and read descriptions like this:
Trump is spending 20 minutes of his rally defending his praise of Saddam Hussein and relitigating his anti-Semitic tweet from the stage.
— Ian Sams (@IanSams) July 6, 2016
And after the speech he was still trying to settle scores:
Where is the outrage for this Disney book? Is this the 'Star of David' also?
Dishonest media! #Frozen pic.twitter.com/4LJBpSm8xa— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 7, 2016
All he wants to do right now is pick fights. I suppose it's conceivable that he'll start using his campaign speeches (or his Twitter feed) to defend Ailes and trash Carlson. Maybe he'll conclude that there's some nefarious connection between her suit and the Clinton campaign. I don't think much of anything is beyond the realm of possibility for him right now.
Crossposted at No More Mr. Nice Blog
