Nielsen ratings this morning suggest that a record number of people tuned in to the first GOP primary debate last night, in which frontrunner Donald Trump call Rosie O’Donnell a “fat pig” and the studio audience hooted their approval. Here it is: the reality TV spinoff/orgy of hatred/pro wrestling shitshow of a campaign season we so richly deserve.
CNN Money reports that the Nielsen ratings show that not only was this the most-watched primary debate ever, but that it was roughly twice as big as the previous winner, topping even the Democratic primary debates of 2008. CNN attributes the ratings extravaganza to “the Trump show,” and they’re depressingly correct: Trump reveled in playing a heel last night, and the audience ate it up.
Today, however, Trump’s focused on two things: accusing co-moderator Megyn Kelly of being “unfair” to him, and pretending like he doesn’t remember saying any of the hideous things he’s publicly said about women for the past 30 years. In a petulant manbaby tweet-storm this morning, he’s accusing Kelly of being “unprofessional:”
Late last night, he even retweeted a comment calling her a “bimbo:”
The Associated Press reports that on Friday’s morning shows, Trump pretended not to recognize any of the specific insults Kelly pointed out he’s lobbed at women. He told hosts on NBC and MSNBC that the insults didn’t sound familiar and he’ll “have it checked out.”
The next debate is September 16, meaning we have more than a month before we have to start therapeutically self-medicating again with the entire liquor cabinet.
Contact the author at anna.merlan@jezebel.com.
Public PGP key
PGP fingerprint: 67B5 5767 9D6F 652E 8EFD 76F5 3CF0 DAF2 79E5 1FB6
Trump Thursday night, post-debate. Photo via AP Images