ATLANTA — The RedState Gathering is going on with business as usual, hearing from Mike Huckabee this morning, with Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, and Scott Walker to come. But the Donald Trump matter is still the talk of the hallways, with most RedState attendees appearing to support RedState founder Erick Erickson’s decision to “disinvite” Trump from a planned event this evening.
At the same time, some critics have pointed to crude or sexist statements Erickson himself has made over the years, suggesting a certain amount of hypocrisy in the decision to boot Trump. A short time ago, I asked Erickson about those criticisms.
“I apologized, and I’m not running for president,” Erickson said. “It’s as simple as that. They’re re-tweeting things that I already have apologized for. Donald Trump isn’t apologizing for this. And I’m not a candidate for president of the United States. If you’re a candidate for president, I think there are certain lines that you just can’t cross. We all fall short, we’re all sinners, we all say dumb things. I at least have had sense to apologize for my dumb things, and Trump doesn’t.”
Erickson, a Fox News contributor, has also had a run-in of his own with Kelly. In 2013, Kelly invited Erickson on her program to discuss remarks he had made about women in the workplace, including the observation that “when you look at biology, look at the natural world, the roles of a male and a female in society and in other animals, the male typically is the dominant role.” It wasn’t an easy interview, with Kelly telling Erickson, “What makes you dominant and me submissive, and who died and made you scientist in chief?”
Erickson said that doesn’t at all resemble the Trump situation today. “Megyn and I had an encounter where Lou and I were both roughed up by Megyn for comments on moms working,” Erickson recalled with a laugh. “She and I, we still get along. I wasn’t going to accuse her of being hormonal when she asked the question. We disagreed on something and moved on. That the first reaction of a candidate for president, when you get a tough question from a lady, is well, it must be her time of the month — and that was the clear implication, despite what they’re now saying — is kind of insane, actually.”
