Donald Trump continues trashing rivals, media
Donald Trump offered a scathing assessment of several 2016 rivals during a visit to the South Carolina African-American Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, continuing the trash-talking approach to the presidential race that's landed him at the head of the Republican primary field.
The billionaire businessman knocked former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, with whom he tussled during the second GOP primary debate last week, for raising money for her campaign rather than spending her own.
"I don't know why, maybe she doesn't have any," Trump guessed of Fiorina, whose net worth is estimated at nearly $60 million.
Trump also complained that he's branded as a "sexist" every time he attacks Fiorina's business career, which he again panned as a "disaster" on Wednesday.
Moving onto Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, Trump remarked, 'She's become very shrill" recently.
He also repeated his claim that she's the "original birther," alleging that it was Clinton who, during her 2008 presidential campaign, kicked off the warrantless speculation that President Obama was not born in the U.S. (Clinton, in an interview with CNN's Don Lemon on Wednesday, laughed off Trump's claim as "ludicrous" and "totally untrue.")
Trump also fixed his sights on Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who's gained some momentum in the wake of a pair of crisp debate performances. Trump charged that Rubio has "the worst attendance record in the Senate." He also called Rubio "very disloyal" for running against Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, his former mentor, in the 2016 GOP primary.
Plus, Trump added, "I have better hair than he does."
The businessman's combustible campaign took another unexpected turn on Wednesday, when he announced he would "boycott" Fox News, blaming the network's unfair treatment of him.
Trump previously feuded with Fox News host Megyn Kelly after she asked what he thought were inappropriate questions during the first GOP primary debate.
After Trump announced the boycott, a Fox News spokesman offered some backstory in a statement.
"At 11:45am today, we canceled Donald Trump's scheduled appearance on The O'Reilly Factor on Thursday, which resulted in Mr. Trump's subsequent tweet about his 'boycott' of FOX News. The press predictably jumped to cover his tweet, creating yet another distraction from any real issues that Mr. Trump might be questioned about," the statement explained. "When coverage doesn't go his way, he engages in personal attacks on our anchors and hosts, which has grown stale and tiresome. He doesn't seem to grasp that candidates telling journalists what to ask is not how the media works in this country."
Trump's campaign, for its part, said their candidate "stands by his statement made earlier today."
"As a candidate for President of the United States and the definitive front runner in every poll, both nationally and state wide, including the just released poll in the state of Florida, Mr. Trump expects to be treated fairly," the campaign declared in a statement.