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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Spin Control

Listen to Donald Trump’s comments in Spokane about Fox News’ Megyn Kelly

If you avoided downtown and the news this weekend, you may have missed presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump's speech at the Spokane Convention Center on Saturday.

We summed up Trump's speech, in which he predicted an unlikely general election win in Washington in November, and Rachel Alexander put together a fact-check of some of the major claims the real estate mogul made during a sprawling, hourlong improvised speech. But if you want to listen to Trump's words in their entirety, you can now do so by playing the audio file appearing below. I recorded the speech on my iPhone, so the quality is a tad less than perfect, but you can make out the salient points.

One of the points in the speech we didn't focus on in our daily coverage was Trump's words about Megyn Kelly, the Fox News anchor who was involved in a very public feud with the candidate earlier this year. His words in Spokane on Kelly, with whom he'll sit down for a one-on-one interview airing next week, refer to a statement he made last year to CNN's Don Lemon which many took as an implication she was menstruating during a debate. Trump responded to that criticism with this tweet:

Trump continued his insistence in Spokane that it was the media's fault for portraying the comment as a reference to menstruation. He begins talking about Kelly in the above sound clip at 33:30.

"She came to me, she came to my office," Trump said of Kelly. "She called me, and I respect her for doing it."

Trump continues, saying he said "nothing wrong to" Kelly.

"Only these dirty-minded people back here," Trump said, pointing to the assembled media at the Spokane event. "I was talking about ears, nose. But you know what? I wanted to get on with the conversation. I think I was talking about economic development. I didn't want to waste any more time." 

"These are bad people," Trump said, again, about the media. "They make a big deal out of it. Just so you understand." 

You can see for yourself what Trump said about Kelly to Lemon, and in what context, in this clip of the interview from YouTube. There's no mention in the clip of economic development, and Trump continues his criticism of Kelly after the implied menstruation quote.

Trump continued, saying the media also makes too much of his public feud with comedienne Rosie O'Donnell, which has gone on for years. But he used the opportunity, once again, to criticize her.

"Who the hell wouldn't speak bad about Rosie O'Donnell?" he asked rhetorically. "She's terrible. She's terrible."



Kip Hill
Kip Hill joined The Spokesman-Review in 2013. He currently is a reporter for the City Desk, covering the marijuana industry, local politics and breaking news. He previously hosted the newspaper's podcast.

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