Donald Trump had a "legitimate grievance" about how he was questioned during the GOP debates Thursday, but he's taking it too far, Hugh Hewitt said Monday.
"He magnified it too much in the attack on Megyn Kelly, which became the blood feud," the conservative radio show and columnist said on
MSNBC's "Morning Joe" show of the debate and the follow-up fireworks after Trump told CNN that there was blood coming from Kelly's "wherever" while she was questioning him.
He has continued to maintain that he was going to go on to say the blood was coming from her nose, but decided to talk about another topic, leaving critics to complain he was blaming her line of questioning on hormones, and
Monday morning said Kelly should apologize to him.
Hewitt agreed, though, that he did not understand the set of questions the Fox moderators posed for the Republican candidates in the second debate.
"There wasn't much of a debate, actually," said Hewitt. "Ben Carson came on my radio show that night and said [he] would have liked to talk to some people. They almost sent Carson and [Texas Sen. Ted] Cruz out for coffee."
Hewitt said he will be one of the moderators for the next GOP debate, and he expects more time will be spent on foreign affairs and differences between the candidates "and less time trying to pin down or embarrass them."
He does think the Fox moderators were "out to embarrass Donald Trump and they triggered him."
And he agrees with GOP candidate Scott Walker for turning the talk to challenging Hillary Clinton.
"The New York Times had a long story on [the email] server about Hillary destroying 31,000 emails," said Hewitt. "That's not an 18-minute gap. That's an 18,000-minute gap. That's what they should have been talking about on Thursday night, and not the Donald."
There was also no time spent talking about the Iran deal, pointed out Hewitt, which is "the most consequential foreign policy move in the next 40 to 50 years, and they spent almost no time on it."
Meanwhile, there are thousands of people coming out to hear Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders speak about his Democratic campaign, at the same time questions are mounting about Clinton, and Hewitt said he hopes Vice President Joe Biden is watching the campaigns as well.
"He was supposed to be having a family retreat to discuss whether or not he's going to get in," said Hewitt. "I think he has to look at an opportunity to be not Hillary and be authentic and be all that comes with that. I hope he gets in. They need more excitement on that side. I think Sanders' crowds are much more about not being Hillary than being Bernie."
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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