MSNBC: Breitbart ‘Denies’ Trump Has Been Paying Them for ‘Favorable Coverage’
DÍAZ-BALART: “To politics now. And Donald Trump battling another controversy of his own making. Fellow candidates slamming the GOP front-runner after comments he made on Friday. Trump ran into trouble when criticizing debate moderator Megyn Kelly. He dug in all weekend, would not apologize, and this morning, he still not saying he’s sorry. Here he is on ‘Morning Joe’ earlier today.”
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TRUMP: “A lot of good things are happening. Maybe I should just leave it the way it is. The fact is she asked me a very inappropriate question. She should really be apologizing to me, you want to know the truth.”
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DÍAZ-BALART: “NBC’s Kristen Welker has the very latest. Joins us from our Washington bureau this morning. Kristen, good morning.”
WELKER: “Jose, good morning to you. And given all of that, the latest NBC News SurveyMonkey poll shows Trump is still ten points ahead of his nearest competitor, but can he move beyond this latest controversy? Meanwhile, the challenge for the rest of the Republican candidates, breaking through all of that Trump noise.”
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TRUMP: “When I'm attacked, I fight back.”
WELKER (voice-over): “Donald Trump remains defiant, refusing to apologize for shocking remarks he made about Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly.”
TRUMP: “No, I apologize when I'm wrong, but I haven't been wrong. I’ve said nothing wrong.”
WELKER (voice-over): “The controversial comments at the center of the firestorm were made Friday night when Trump seemed to suggest Kelly was hormonal when she asked him tough questions during last week's first GOP debate.”
TRUMP: “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever, but she was, in my opinion, she was off base.”
WELKER (voice-over): “Trump says he was only referring to Kelly's nose. Still, the comments touched the nerve throughout the Republican Party. This weekend, conservative activist Erick Erickson disinvited Trump from his RedState gathering in Atlanta.”
ERICKSON: “I don't want my daughter in the room with Donald Trump tomorrow night.”
WELKER (voice-over): “Most of Trump's Republican rivals pounced.”
JINDAL: “I think it's cowardly to share those kinds of demeaning, insulting comments.”
FIORINA: “They were completely inappropriate and offensive comments. Period.”
WELKER (voice-over): “It's not clear yet whether the flap will impact Trump's front-runner status, but it comes amid some infighting in his campaign. Trump says, he fired his long time business ally and campaign adviser Roger Stone. Stone disputes that, saying he quit. Meanwhile, for Trump's opponents, the goal is just getting their own messages out.”
CRUZ: “We're going to keep the focus of this campaign on the problems, the challenges facing the American people.”
BUSH: “I'm going to fight hard. I'm going to fight with heart.”
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WELKER: “And breaking overnight, BuzzFeed reported that Trump has been paying a conservative website Breitbart News for favorable coverage. Breitbart’s Chairman Stephen Bannon denies that telling, BuzzFeed, ‘we have no financial relationship with Donald Trump. The insinuation that we do or did is a lie. Now, Trump’s campaign did not respond to BuzzFeed’s or NBC's request for comment. And I expect this will be all the buzz on the campaign trail today.”
