Donald Trump said Friday that he had a great time and enjoyed his first political debate, but he found many of the questions posed to him by Fox News' moderators, and by Megyn Kelly in particular, "somewhat unfair."
"I don't think Fox was fair," the Republican front-runner told
MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program. "Actually, some of the other people came up to me that were on the stands and they said, 'Man, I'm glad I didn't get those questions you were getting.' And they didn't. But I've been set up before. I think I handled it well."
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Trump believes he won the debate, and doesn't think he could have done any better.
"There was no question that I would like to say, 'Oh, gee, I wish I would like to have a do over,'" said Trump.
However, he does believe
the first question, from Fox News' Bret Baier, asking candidates to raise their hand if they are not willing to pledge their support to the eventual nominee of the Republican Party and pledge to not run an independent campaign against that person was a "setup beyond belief."
"Raise your hand and I raised my hand," he said. "Obviously, I'm the only one going to raise my hand. There was a little bit of a wrangling in the room. Outside of that, I had tremendous response all night."
He told the show that he raised his hand because "I'm a natural negotiator; I like leverage, to be honest with you. That's what the country needs."
But even if he raised his hand, Trump insisted Friday morning that he wants to run as a Republican, and if a candidate wins the nomination who he likes, he won't run as an independent. "But I want to leave the option open just in case that doesn't happen."
Trump also said that many of his supporters are asking him to run as an independent. And, he said, he's not worried about losing to Hillary Clinton, because he doesn't think she's necessarily going to be the Democratic candidate, given her mounting troubles, particularly the growing scandal about her use of a private email server while she was serving as secretary of state.
Trump told Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program later in the morning that he did feel comfortable on the stage, and complained that Baier's question "was absolutely aimed at me, which I didn't think was appropriate."
But Trump said he didn't want to use the word "unfair," although he "thought it was tough."
"If you look at Drudge, Time magazine, The New York Times, I must have handled it well," he said. "They said I was easily the winner. You know, it was a surprise to be standing up there and having to be justifying ... you're having to justify everything."
Further, Trump pointed out on MSNBC that he's winning the polls "by actually a lot" and he thinks his numbers will go up.
"There's a lot of love for what I'm saying," he told the program in a telephone interview. "I don't know if it's for me, but certainly there is a lot of love for what I'm saying. People are really fed up with politicians."
Trump in particular complained about a
question posed by Fox News star Megyn Kelly, who asked him about past statements he's made about women.
"I don't care that much," he told the "Morning Joe" show. "I would have rather had maybe a different type of question. The question on the women, I didn't say many of those things. They said something and they were giving out some words, and I don't remember that on 'The Apprentice.'
"I don't know where they got some of the words, to be honest. In fact, I'm going to have somebody call up and find out where the words came from. I don't recognize those words," he said. "Not that I'm an angel, by the way. But I don't recognize those words."
Trump added that when Kelly asked him if he'd "called women you don't like fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals," he replied "Only Rosie O'Donnell," the room "broke up."
"It was the biggest event of the evening," said Trump. "It really threw her off. She thought, you know this was going to be a cakewalk. And that really was an interesting moment if you want to know the truth."
But Trump told Bloomberg News' Al Hunt on the MSNBC show Friday morning that it's not "that important" to him to continue a battle with Kelly because he has "an interesting life. ... If she feels that she wants to do it that way, that's OK with me. But I just don't think it's very professional ...
"I'm very surprised at Fox News that they would do that because, you know, I would say it's pretty unprofessional. But we will live it with. It's just fine."
He also said he believes he handled a Kelly question about his bankruptcies "really well," because he "never went bankrupt." Rather, he told the program that he has used the bankruptcy system to his advantage and has made great deals.
"But out of hundreds of companies and hundreds of transactions, four of them, now for her to bring that up. I think I answered it really well," Trump said.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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