Governor Terry Branstad at his news conference this morning.
Governor Terry Branstad is suggesting Donald Trump has overreacted to the questions he faced in last Thursday’s FOX News debate that featured Trump and nine other Republican presidential candidates.
“Sometimes you may feel the questions (are) inappropriate, but I don’t think it’s correct to react in that manner,” Branstad told reporters this morning during his weekly news conference.
Trump has complained the questions he got from the female FOX News debate moderator were unfair and Trump created a firestorm over the weekend when he suggested there was “blood coming out of her eyes and…her wherever.”
“I thought Megyn Kelly and the others performed appropriately,” Branstad said. “And if you’re going to run for public office, and I’ve done it a few times, you’ve got to be willing to take tough questions.”
Branstad, who has won six terms as Iowa’s governor, said the debate had a “phenomenal” audience and Branstad said he’s “confident” Iowans will sift through the campaign chatter about Trump.
“I don’t think we should be distracted from looking at and focusing on the issues because of the comments that one candidate made in a debate that included 10 on that stage and seven more in the previous event,” Branstad said.
AUDIO of Branstad’s weekly news conference
The next FOX News debate will be in Iowa, in January. Branstad told reporters this morning that Trump and all the other candidates in the race should be included in the event. Chuck Laudner, Trump’s Iowa campaign director, calls the debate a disappointment.
“A record number of people tuned in and there’s no doubt that was because Donald Trump was standing center stage,” Laudner told Radio Iowa Sunday night. “There’s no arguing that point and what they wanted to see was Trump being Trump and they wanted to hear how he was going to make America great again. Well, they got the Trump being Trump, but he never got a question on jobs, the economy, taxes, spending.”
Laudner said Trump and his supporters are “sick and tired of the media” and that includes FOX News. Trump has rejected the criticism that he was accusing the female debate moderator of being hormonal. During an interview on CNN, Trump said only a “sick person” would make that assumption.
(Photo by Asya Akca)