August 08, 2015
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's latest controversial remarks appear to have cost him the allegiance and support of his top campaign strategist, Roger Stone, as mounting criticism further alienates him from mainstream conservatives.
Trump's inflammatory comments about Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, who moderated Thursday night's primary debate, invited a major backlash that has left the campaign in disarray, NBC News reports.
Conflicting reports emerged Saturday over whether Trump fired Stone—which his campaign claims he did—or whether Stone resigned in response to the remark on Friday that Kelly had "blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever."
The Trump campaign released a statement Saturday afternoon that accused Stone of using the campaign for his own personal publicity.
Mr. Trump fired Roger Stone last night. We have a tremendously successful campaign and Roger wanted to use the campaign for his own personal publicity. He has had a number of articles about him recently and Mr. Trump wants to keep the focus of the campaign on how to Make America Great Again.
Stone, however, who has served as a consultant to Republican candidates stretching back to Richard Nixon, forwarded an e-mail to NBC News which appears to show that he submitted a resignation letter.
"Unfortunately, the current controversies involving personalities and provocative media fights have reached such a high volume that it has distracted attention from your platform and overwhelmed your core message. With this current direction of the candidacy, I no longer can remain involved in your campaign," the email read.
Multiple Republican candidates and conservative voices condemned Trump's comments as sexist and inappropriate. RedState.com editor Erick Erickson went so far as to disinvite Trump from this weekend's RedState Gathering in Atlanta, Georgia, calling the remarks "a bridge too far for me" despite a personal fondness for Trump.
"I just don't want someone on stage who gets a hostile question from a lady and his first inclination is to imply it was hormonal. It just was wrong," Erickson said on his website.
Trump, who defended the comments and doubled down on his assertion that "political correctness is killing our country," has not ruled out running as an independent candidate in the event that he is spurned beyond contention by the Republican party.
Meanwhile, Trump continues to take credit for the record-setting attention he has drawn to the Republican primary race, citing multiple media outlets who say he came out on top after Thursday night's debate.
Wow, CNN just said that Donald Trump won the DEBATE, connected best with audience. Also, Time, Drudge, Newsmax, N.Y.Times and more!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 8, 2015
Almost universal support that "Trump won the debate." Only @FoxNews is consistantly fighting the Trump win, and I got them the ratings!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 8, 2015
