This story has been updated with a statement from Fox News.
Donald Trump escalated his longstanding feud with Fox News host Megyn Kelly on Friday, calling on his Twitter followers to boycott her show.
Everybody should boycott the @megynkelly show. Never worth watching. Always a hit on Trump! She is sick, & the most overrated person on tv.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 18, 2016
Trump announced this week that he would be skipping a Fox Republican presidential debate scheduled to be held in Salt Lake City on Monday, forcing the network to cancel the event entirely. He instead plans to give a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which rabbis and the editor of a Jewish-American newspaper have asked attendees to boycott in turn.
Trump has waged a loud, public campaign against the Fox host since she pointedly questioned him about past remarks denigrating women during the first Republican presidential debate in August.
The GOP frontrunner has since referred to Kelly as a “bimbo,” “biased,” “crazy,” and a “lightweight reporter.”
Highly overrated & crazy @megynkelly is always complaining about Trump and yet she devotes her shows to me. Focus on others Megyn!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 17, 2016
In a statement provided to TPM Friday night, a Fox News spokesperson slammed Trump’s “vitriolic attacks” on Kelly as undignified for a presidential candidate.
Here’s the full statement from Fox News:
Donald Trump’s vitriolic attacks against Megyn Kelly and his extreme, sick obsession with her is beneath the dignity of a presidential candidate who wants to occupy the highest office in the land. Megyn is an exemplary journalist and one of the leading anchors in America — we’re extremely proud of her phenomenal work and continue to fully support her throughout every day of Trump’s endless barrage of crude and sexist verbal assaults. As the mother of three young children, with a successful law career and the second highest rated show in cable news, it’s especially deplorable for her to be repeatedly abused just for doing her job
Awesome.
Bizzare.
Trump writing the perfect ads for Democrats. Wait until the General Election, Donald.
I’m sure it will be just as wildly successful as the boycott of Apple products that Drumpf suggested the other day.
I’ll tell ya one thing, now is not the time to boycott buying shares in popcorn companies.