Trump Feuds With Fox News' Judge Andrew Napolitano

Donald Trump (L) and Judge Andrew Napolitano (R)

File this under "Infighting is funny."

Donald Trump is super-angry because Fox News contributor Judge Andrew Napolitano penned this for Fox News last week which doesn't quite 'exonerate' Trump of obstruction of justice:

Obstruction is a rare crime that is rarely completed. Stated differently, the obstructer need not succeed in order to be charged with obstruction. That’s because the statute itself prohibits attempting to impede or interfere with any government proceeding for a corrupt or self-serving purpose.

The president’s job is to enforce federal law. If he had ordered its violation to save innocent life or preserve human freedom, he would have a moral defense. But ordering obstruction to save himself from the consequences of his own behavior is unlawful and condemnable.

In retribution, Trump tweeted an angry retort claiming Napolitano turned on him because the Trumpster refused to nominate the judge to the Supreme Court.

Note how the Donald also puts the word "pal" in quotes in referring to openly gay Fox News anchor Shepard Smith, who has also been critical of the president.

Thank you to brilliant and highly respected attorney Alan Dershowitz for destroying the very dumb legal argument of “Judge” Andrew Napolitano....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 28, 2019

....Ever since Andrew came to my office to ask that I appoint him to the U.S. Supreme Court, and I said NO, he has been very hostile! Also asked for pardon for his friend. A good “pal” of low ratings Shepard Smith.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 28, 2019

Napolitano clapped back over the weekend during an interview with Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business clarifying the SCOTUS comment and asked out loud of the Donald, "This is the way you treat your friends?"

Via Mediaite:

Andrew Napolitano accused Donald Trump of mischaracterizing their conversations together when the president swiped at him over the weekend. Maria Bartiromo asked Napolitano about this when he joined her on Fox Business, but he shrugged it off and asked “This is the way you treat your friends? How do you treat your enemies?”

Napolitano said that when he described how Neil Gorsuch had the judicial qualities Trump was looking for, the president-elect supposedly turned to him and said: “sounds like you’re describing yourself.”

“I said ‘no, no, I’m not describing myself,’” Napolitano recalled. “‘I’m describing Neil Gorsuch because you have this list of people from which you want to choose, and Judge Gorsuch is the person that I think most of your advisers are going to point to.’”

Ann Coulter: Donald Trump Is A "Shallow, Narcissistic Con Man"

Ann Coulter

The Palm Beach Post reports that during an event at the Kravis Center last night, conservative pundit Ann Coulter called Donald Trump "a shallow, narcissistic con man."

File this under "Infighting is funny."

Coulter turned on Trump after he moved to end the longest federal government shutdown in history without securing the funds to build his beloved U.S.-Mexico border wall.

Coulter also went after the 'lying media' as well at last night's event.

“Trump may be a shallow, narcissistic con man, but that doesn’t mean the media are not the enemy of the people. Both things can be true,” said Coulter.

The conservative author later added she hopes the legacy of the Trump administration would be the “total destruction of the lying media.”

(h/t JoeMyGod)

Mitt Romney Pens Op-Ed Trashing Trump's Lack Of Leadership & Character

Donald Trump and Mitt Romney

File under 'Infighting is funny.'

Incoming freshman US Senator Mitt Romney of Utah penned a scathing op-ed for the Washington Post criticizing Donald Trump up and down.

From the essay:

It is well known that Donald Trump was not my choice for the Republican presidential nomination. After he became the nominee, I hoped his campaign would refrain from resentment and name-calling. It did not. When he won the election, I hoped he would rise to the occasion. His early appointments of Rex Tillerson, Jeff Sessions, Nikki Haley, Gary Cohn, H.R. McMaster, Kelly and Mattis were encouraging. But, on balance, his conduct over the past two years, particularly his actions last month, is evidence that the president has not risen to the mantle of the office.

[sic]

To a great degree, a presidency shapes the public character of the nation. A president should unite us and inspire us to follow “our better angels.” A president should demonstrate the essential qualities of honesty and integrity, and elevate the national discourse with comity and mutual respect. As a nation, we have been blessed with presidents who have called on the greatness of the American spirit. With the nation so divided, resentful and angry, presidential leadership in qualities of character is indispensable. And it is in this province where the incumbent’s shortfall has been most glaring.

Predictably, Trump clapped back wondering aloud if Romney plans to be a 'Flake,' meaning now-retired Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, who was a sometime-thorn in Trump's backside.

Here we go with Mitt Romney, but so fast! Question will be, is he a Flake? I hope not. Would much prefer that Mitt focus on Border Security and so many other things where he can be helpful. I won big, and he didn’t. He should be happy for all Republicans. Be a TEAM player & WIN!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2019

And by the way, just keeping them honest here, Trump didn't win "big." He lost the popular vote, and squeezed a win in the Electoral College by just over 85K votes in 3 states.

Fox News' Shepard Smith: "Our Opinion Programming Is There Strictly To Be Entertaining"

Fox News' Shepard Smith

File this under "Infighting is funny."

Fox News' Shepard Smith told TIME Magazine recently that Fox News' evening opinion shows are meant to be "entertaining," not "news."

Via The Hill:

Fox News anchor Shepard Smith says opinion programming on his network doesn't "really have rules" and exists "strictly to be entertaining," in an interview published Thursday.

"Some of our opinion programming is there strictly to be entertaining," Smith told Time Magazine's Daniel D'Addario in a piece titled, "Shep Smith Has the Hardest Job on Fox News."

“We serve different masters," Smith, 54, added when discussing the difference between the opinion side of Fox News, including shows such as "The Sean Hannity Show," and the network's news division. "We work for different reporting chains, we have different rules. They don’t really have rules on the opinion side. They can say whatever they want. If it’s their opinion."

The interview comes as the network announced today it is re-signing the veteran anchor to a multiyear contract as Fox's chief news anchor and managing editor of breaking news.

And then Sean Hannity slapped back on Twitter:

While Shep is a friend with political views I do not share, and great at breaking news, he is clueless about what we do every day. Hannity breaks news daily-Warrant on a Trump assoc, the unmasking scandal, leaking intel, Fisa abuse, HRC lawbreaking, dossier and more REAL NEWS! 9p https://t.co/zJpnnyFTtP

— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) March 16, 2018

However, Hannity has pointedly said many times in the past that he is NOT a journalist, he's a pundit. So - which is it, Sean?

Nutjob Fox News pundit Laura Ingraham also chimed in:

Always liked Shep, but his comments were inconsiderate & inaccurate. The hard working team at the Ingraham Angle does real reporting, develops impt sources and scores big interviews. Very proud of them. https://t.co/3aR1EHAK3Z

— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) March 16, 2018

White House: Steve Bannon "Not Only Lost His Job, He Lost His Mind"

File this under "Infighting is funny."

The White House has quickly issued this statement regarding Steve Bannon's quoted statements in Michael Wolff's upcoming behind-the-scenes look at the Trump presidency, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.

Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my Presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind. Steve was a staffer who worked for me after I had already won the nomination by defeating seventeen candidates, often described as the most talented field ever assembled in the Republican party.

Now that he is on his own, Steve is learning that winning isn’t as easy as I make it look. Steve had very little to do with our historic victory, which was delivered by the forgotten men and women of this country. Yet Steve had everything to do with the loss of a Senate seat in Alabama held for more than thirty years by Republicans. Steve doesn’t represent my base—he’s only in it for himself.

Steve pretends to be at war with the media, which he calls the opposition party, yet he spent his time at the White House leaking false information to the media to make himself seem far more important than he was. It is the only thing he does well. Steve was rarely in a one-on-one meeting with me and only pretends to have had influence to fool a few people with no access and no clue, whom he helped write phony books.

We have many great Republican members of Congress and candidates who are very supportive of the Make America Great Again agenda. Like me, they love the United States of America and are helping to finally take our country back and build it up, rather than simply seeking to burn it all down.

Multiple people told me this morning Trump is infuriated beyond belief at Steve Bannon’s comments about Don Junior. Saying that Trump thinks Bannon is the traitor. They’ve never seen Trump this angry. The sound of their voices? Absolutely terrified. Expect an unhinged response.

— Scott Dworkin (@funder) January 3, 2018

"Steve Bannon was just a low-level, volunteer coffee boy." -- Trump, tomorrow

— Victor Stoddard (@VicStoddard) January 3, 2018

CNN: Steve Bannon says Trump tower meeting was treasonous.

MSNBC: Steve Bannon says Trump met with the Russians in Trump tower.

FOX NEWS: holy shit we actually have to cover this

— God (@TheGoodGodAbove) January 3, 2018

From the parody Twitter account of "President Bannon:"

About to fire Donald Trump.

— Steve Bannon (@PRESlDENTBANNON) January 3, 2018

Did it not occur to you that "deconstructing the administrative state" could involve taking out the sitting president?

— Steve Bannon (@PRESlDENTBANNON) January 3, 2018

Day 348

Eggs: breaking
Secrets: leaking
Mueller: laughing
McConnell: smiling
Democrats: dancing
Base: crying
White House: panicking
Ship: sinking
Swamp: boiling
Hot tub: filling
Tiny Hands: fuming

So much: WINNING

— Steve Bannon (@PRESlDENTBANNON) January 3, 2018

Twitter Fight: Sen. Ben Sasse & Fox News' Sean Hannity

Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska

After Donald Trump called for possible actions to be taken against networks like NBC and CNN for what he calls "fake news," Sen. Ben Sasse took to Twitter to remind the president that a free press is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.

“Disgusting the press is able to write whatever it wants to write,” wrote the president.

“No president should play with censoring news they dislike,” Sasse fired back.

And thus began a Twitter feud between Sasse and conservative Fox News douche / Trump butt boy Sean Hannity.

File this under "infighting is fun."

Mr. President:
Are you recanting of the Oath you took on Jan. 20 to preserve, protect, and defend the 1st Amendment? pic.twitter.com/XLB7QXM3bQ

— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) October 12, 2017

One of the biggest mistakes in my career was supporting @BenSasse Just useless. https://t.co/bYReWFdfKO

— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) October 12, 2017

Sorry, Sean -- you changed, not me. Some of us still believe in the Constitution. No President should play with censoring news they dislike. https://t.co/ZBEMNSF7nz

— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) October 12, 2017

Question for conservatives:
What will you wish you had said now if someday a President Elizabeth Warren talks about censoring Fox News?

— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) October 12, 2017

White House Insiders Concerned Donald Trump Is "Unraveling"

President Donald Trump

Not a good day in Donald Trump's world as a string of stories from multiple sources describe a White House in daily turmoil.

First, a stunning report via Vanity Fair that describes the situation so tense insiders in the Trump administration have begun wondering if Chief of Staff John Kelly and Defense Secretary James Mattis might have to "tackle" the president if he ordered a nuclear strike.

An excerpt:

At first it sounded like hyperbole, the escalation of a Twitter war. But now it’s clear that Bob Corker’s remarkable New York Times interview—in which the Republican senator described the White House as “adult day care” and warned Trump could start World War III—was an inflection point in the Trump presidency. It brought into the open what several people close to the president have recently told me in private: that Trump is “unstable,” “losing a step,” and “unraveling.”

In recent days, I spoke with a half dozen prominent Republicans and Trump advisers, and they all describe a White House in crisis as advisers struggle to contain a president who seems to be increasingly unfocused and consumed by dark moods. Trump’s ire is being fueled by his stalled legislative agenda and, to a surprising degree, by his decision last month to back the losing candidate Luther Strange in the Alabama Republican primary. “Alabama was a huge blow to his psyche,” a person close to Trump said. “He saw the cult of personality was broken.”

According to two sources familiar with the conversation, Trump vented to his longtime security chief, Keith Schiller, “I hate everyone in the White House! There are a few exceptions, but I hate them!” (A White House official denies this.) Two senior Republican officials said Chief of Staff John Kelly is miserable in his job and is remaining out of a sense of duty to keep Trump from making some sort of disastrous decision. Today, speculation about Kelly’s future increased after Politico reported that Kelly’s deputy Kirstjen Nielsen is likely to be named Homeland Security Secretary—the theory among some Republicans is that Kelly wanted to give her a soft landing before his departure.

One former official even speculated that Kelly and Secretary of Defense James Mattis have discussed what they would do in the event Trump ordered a nuclear first strike. “Would they tackle him?” the person said. Even Trump’s most loyal backers are sowing public doubts. This morning, The Washington Post quoted longtime Trump friend Tom Barrack saying he has been “shocked” and “stunned” by Trump’s behavior.

And this from today's Los Angeles Times:

(John) Kelly, the retired Marine general who is Trump’s second chief of staff, has sought to tighten the flow of information and visitors to the president, to bring order to an unruly White House and to the way that Trump makes his decisions. But he is often thwarted by one man: Trump.

The president by many accounts has bristled at the restrictions and continues — usually alone on mornings, nights and weekends — to act on his own gut sense, using his own lines to contact allies outside the White House and, using Twitter, to reach those millions of supporters he calls "my people."

After a wild weekend of attacks by Twitter and off-the-cuff comments, including against a senior Republican senator, Bob Corker of Tennessee, Trump kept it up on Tuesday. He tweeted a schoolyard taunt about Corker’s height — “Liddle’ Bob Corker — and said the senator “was made to sound like a fool” in a New York Times interview in which Corker warned that Trump could provoke World War III.

Trump challenged his own secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, to an IQ test, even as he dismissed as fake news last week’s reports that Tillerson had called him a moron. ”And I can tell you who is going to win,” Trump added, according to a Forbes interview published Tuesday.

Allies see signs that Trump is frustrated with Kelly and increasingly unwilling to be managed, even just a little. The person close to the White House said the two men had engaged in “shouting matches” in recent days.

And finally, things are definitely not going well when Fox News hosts like Neil Cavuto take to the airwaves to address Trump directly with a message like, “It’s not that some of your ideas aren’t sound, it’s that increasingly this erratic behavior is making me wonder whether you are.”

“Now I know that you say that Senator Corker started all this bad mouthing you, but last time I checked, you are the President of the United States, so tweeting out these tacky insults just seems beneath you,” Cavuto continued.

And then, “You are running out of friends faster than you are running out of time. You might not like Bob Corker, but a lot of senators do, and you need those senators, sir.”

Watch below.

Sen. Bob Corker: White House Spends Every Single Day Trying To "Contain" Donald Trump

Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee

In a stunning interview with the New York Times, Republican Sen. Bob Corker shared that he has grave concerns about Donald Trump who acts “like he’s doing The Apprentice or something.”

In an extraordinary rebuke of a president of his own party, Mr. Corker said he was alarmed about a president who acts “like he’s doing ‘The Apprentice’ or something.”

“He concerns me,” Mr. Corker added. “He would have to concern anyone who cares about our nation.”

Mr. Trump poses such an acute risk, the senator said, that a coterie of senior administration officials must protect him from his own instincts. “I know for a fact that every single day at the White House, it’s a situation of trying to contain him,” Mr. Corker said in a telephone interview.

Without offering specifics, he said Mr. Trump had repeatedly undermined diplomacy with his Twitter fingers. “I know he has hurt, in several instances, he’s hurt us as it relates to negotiations that were underway by tweeting things out,” Mr. Corker said.

All but inviting his colleagues to join him in speaking out about the president, Mr. Corker said his concerns about Mr. Trump were shared by nearly every Senate Republican.

“Look, except for a few people, the vast majority of our caucus understands what we’re dealing with here,” he said, adding that “of course they understand the volatility that we’re dealing with and the tremendous amount of work that it takes by people around him to keep him in the middle of the road.”

As for the tweets that set off the feud on Sunday morning, Mr. Corker expressed a measure of powerlessness.

“I don’t know why the president tweets out things that are not true,” he said. “You know he does it, everyone knows he does it, but he does.”

That last line is actually quite amazing. A sitting senator from the president's own party acknowledging his guy lies on a regular basis.

And apparently every Republican Senator thinks Trump is a serious threat to the country but stays silent because of politics or something.

Corker was fairly close to Trump during and right after the 2016 election. According to reports, he was considered for such high ranking positions in the Trump administration as Vice President and Secretary of State, but withdrew his name from consideration after conversations with Trump on foreign policy made him uneasy.

Corker announced recently that he will not seek reelection in 2018. Clearly, having no concerns about campaigning for votes has imbued him with a new sense of freedom to express himself.

It's worth noting that with a slim two-vote margin in the Senate, Corker has 13 months left as a  U.S. Senator. Trump hurts himself and his policy proposals by attacking a member of his own party.

#InfightingIsFun

It's a shame the White House has become an adult day care center. Someone obviously missed their shift this morning.

— Senator Bob Corker (@SenBobCorker) October 8, 2017

Sen. John McCain: We Don't Answer To Donald Trump

Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, in an op-ed for the Washington Post, makes it clear he is DONE with Donald Trump.

An excerpt:

Our entire system of government — with its checks and balances, its bicameral Congress, its protections of the rights of the minority — was designed for compromise. It seldom works smoothly or speedily. It was never expected to.

It requires pragmatic problem-solving from even the most passionate partisans. It relies on compromise between opposing sides to protect the interests we share. We can fight like hell for our ideas to prevail. But we have to respect each other or at least respect the fact that we need each other.

That has never been truer than today, when Congress must govern with a president who has no experience of public office, is often poorly informed and can be impulsive in his speech and conduct.

We must respect his authority and constitutional responsibilities. We must, where we can, cooperate with him. But we are not his subordinates. We don’t answer to him. We answer to the American people. We must be diligent in discharging our responsibility to serve as a check on his power. And we should value our identity as members of Congress more than our partisan affiliation.

Trump Orders "Bury-The-Hatchet" Confab Between Steve Bannon & Jared Kushner

Politico is reporting that President Trump, who is famous for pitting associates against each other, had grown weary of the discord between two of his closest advisers and ordered a "bury-the-hatchet" meeting.

Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner, two warring senior White House aides, had a bury-the-hatchet meeting ordered by President Donald Trump, after arriving at Mar-a-Lago this week. The sit-down, which was confirmed by two White House officials, was an attempt to smooth over tensions between the two men, which have dominated headlines for days. Whether the meeting was successful in creating a détente – and how long it lasts – is an open question, especially in a White House that has been dominated by infighting.

Bannon and Kushner had for months been allies. In recent weeks, though, there has been substantial discord between them. The fight, people in the administration say, centers on policy differences. Bannon, White House chief strategist, is a flame-throwing populist who formerly ran Breitbart News. He has criticized Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, for his more politically moderate approach. Kushner is suspicious of Bannon’s fiery style and has been concerned about how he’s influencing the president.

Earlier this week, the New York Times wrote that one confrontation ended with Bannon "growling" at Kushner, “Here’s the reason there’s no middle ground - you’re a Democrat.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham: "I Cannot In Good Conscience Support Donald Trump"

Donald Trump (L) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R)

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham took to Twitter today to make clear that he is definitely NOT on the Trump train:

It’s hard to believe that in a nation of more than 300 million Americans Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will be our choices for President.

As for me, I absolutely will NOT support Hillary Clinton for President.

Hillary Clinton represents the third term of Barack Obama & our nation cannot afford to continue those failed policies at home or abroad.

I also cannot in good conscience support Donald Trump because I do not believe he is a reliable Republican conservative, do not believe he is a reliable GOP conservative, nor has he displayed the judgment and temperament to serve as Commander in Chief.

Finally, I do not plan to attend the Republican convention in Cleveland this summer.

After the election, regardless of who wins, I'll do everything I can to help new President deal w/ the many challenges facing our nation.

Of course, The Donald wasted no time responding:

"I fully understand why Lindsey Graham cannot support me. If I got beaten as badly as I beat him, and all the other candidates he endorsed, I would not be able to give my support either," he said in a statement.

"Every time I see Lindsey Graham spew hate during interviews I ask why the media never questions how I single handily destroyed his hapless run for President. As a candidate who did not receive 1% in his own state - compared to my victory at nearly 40% with many others in the race - he has zero credibility."

Donald Trump: Lyin' Ted Is Becoming "More And More Unhinged"

During an interview with "Fox & Friends" this morning, Donald Trump took some swings at opponent Ted Cruz which included parroting a recent National Enquirer article citing Cruz's father, Rafael Cruz, linking him to President John F. Kennedy's assassin.

This was, predictably, followed by Cruz responding to the accusation:

"This man is a pathological liar. He doesn't know the difference between truth and lies," Cruz said at a press conference. "He lies — practically every word that comes out of his mouth."

At various points, he called Trump a "narcissist" and "serial philanderer" and said "morality doesn't exist" for him.

Cruz also responded at length to the Republican presidential frontrunner's suggestion earlier in the day that Cruz's father, Rafael Cruz, was somehow linked to Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of President John F. Kennedy.

The Texas senator mocked Trump's suggestions, going on a sarcastic riff to lump in Trump with famous conspiracy theorists.

"Yes, my dad killed JFK. He's secretly Elvis. And Jimmy Hoffa is buried in his backyard," Cruz said.

And, of course, The Donald wasn't about to let Cruz have the last word. Said Trump:

Ted Cruz is a desperate candidate trying to save his failing campaign. It is no surprise he has resorted to his usual tactics of over-the-top rhetoric that nobody believes.

Over the last week, I have watched Lyin’ Ted become more and more unhinged as he is unable to react under the pressure and stress of losing, in all cases by landslides, the last six primary elections --- in fact, coming in last place in all but one of them.

Today’s ridiculous outburst only proves what I have been saying for a long time, that Ted Cruz does not have the temperament to be President of the United States.

File this under #InfightingIsFun

Needless to say, all eyes are on the primary in Indiana tonight as pundits and pols are watching to see if Trump can score a decisive victory in an attempt to shut out Cruz from any delegates.

Attack Ad: Ted Cruz Says Donald Trump Is The Real Liar

Sen. Ted Cruz slaps back at billionaire Donald Trump about The Donald's campaign attacks on Cruz.

Cruz goes on to say the Trumpster is the real liar and "phony."

#infighting

Cruz Supporter Steve Deace To Trump Supporter: "Stop Lying!!!"

Iowa radio host and Ted Cruz supporter Steve Deace had a meltdown on CNN during a panel discussion about the current state of the Republican primary.

With cries of "Stop lying!" Deace went on a rant accusing Donald Trump supporter Kayleigh McEnany of distorting the truth every day on national TV.

Via The Hill:

“Kayleigh, I don’t know you. Seriously, do you have any integrity at all?” Iowa radio host Steve Deace said to Trump backer Kayleigh McEnany as CNN host Brooke Baldwin shook her head. Baldwin interjected to ask Deace to keep it professional as the conservative radio host continued to rip McEnany.

“I am keeping it professional. She’s the one lying,” said Deace, who criticized McEnany for arguing that Cruz had silenced voters in Colorado by winning delegates elected at a convention. “There is no voterless elections. Every delegate is elected. Including Pennsylvania,” Deace continued. “This is the biggest lie and the biggest scam from a guy that lied repeatedly in the entire campaign and whose campaign is built on a lie.” He went on to repeatedly shout at McEnany to “stop lying,” accusing Trump surrogates of misleading the American people.

Watch the fireworks below.

New, "More Presidential" Trump Mocks Kasich On Eating Habits - "It's Disgusting'

Last week, Donald Trump's senior advisors told Republican party leaders that the GOP front-runner would be shifting to a new, more presidential version of Trump in the coming weeks.

This, clearly, is not that week.

Via Business Insider:

During a rally in Rhode Island, the Republican presidential frontrunner said that the Ohio governor should learn from Trump's children, whom Trump has urged to eat modest portions of food.

"Did you see him? He has a news conference all the time when he's eating. I have never seen a human being eat in such a disgusting fashion," Trump said of Kasich.

He continued: "I'd say, 'Children, small, little bites.' This guy takes a pancake and he's shoving it in his mouth. It's disgusting. Do you want this guy for your president?"

Cruz & Kasich Campaigns Join Forces To Stop Trump From Reaching 1,237 Delegates

Via NBC News:

The campaigns of Ted Cruz and John Kasich announced an agreement Sunday night to coordinate their efforts to prevent Donald Trump from winning the GOP's presidential nomination before the Republican National Convention.

"To ensure that we nominate a Republican who can unify the Republican Party and win in November, our campaign will focus its time and resources in Indiana and in turn clear the path for Gov. Kasich to compete in Oregon and New Mexico," Cruz's campaign manager Jeff Roe said in a statement late Sunday.

The Kasich campaign sent its own statement minutes later.

"Our goal is to have an open convention in Cleveland, where we are confident a candidate capable of uniting the party and winning in November will emerge as the nominee," Kasich's chief strategist, John Weaver, wrote.

The Trumpster, unsurprisingly, took to Twitter to share his displeasure:

Wow, just announced that Lyin' Ted and Kasich are going to collude in order to keep me from getting the Republican nomination. DESPERATION!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 25, 2016

Fox News' Megyn Kelly Has Private Meeting With Donald Trump

Fox News' Megyn Kelly, after months of attacks by Donald Trump, privately met with the Trumpster at his Fifth Avenue Trump Towers yesterday in an attempt to "clear the air" between the two, and discus a possible interview on her evening broadcast.

Via Politico:

Kelly said the meeting was held at her request and was an effort to clear the air between herself and Trump. Trump has publicly attacked Kelly on a number of occasions, ever since she grilled him on his past comments about women at the first Republican primary debate last year.

“We met for about an hour, just the two of us, and had a chance to clear the air,” Kelly said. “Mr. Trump and I discussed the possibility of an interview. And I hope we will have news to announce on that soon.”

Kelly has largely tried to stay above the fray, though she acknowledged at Tina Brown’s Women in the World conference last week that Trump’s attacks on her have been “unprecedented for a presidential candidate.”

Cruz To Trump: "You're A Sniveling Coward"

Ted Cruz has had enough when it comes to Donald Trump...calling the Republican frontrunner a "sniveling coward".

Posted by Hardball with Chris Matthews on Thursday, March 24, 2016

Ted Cruz: Donald Trump Threatened My Wife

Appearing on CNN's "New Day," GOP White House hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz slapped back at Donald Trump for threatening Cruz's wife via Twitter after a Cruz Super-PAC used a nearly naked photo of Melania Trump in a Facebook ad.

From Politico:

“If Donald wants to get in a character fight he's better off sticking with me, because Heidi is way out of his league,” Cruz said on CNN’s “New Day,” responding to a late-night tweet from Trump warning, "Be careful, Lyin' Ted, or I will spill the beans on your wife!”

The attack reveals a lot about Trump's character, Cruz said. "That should be beneath Donald," he said. "The reason he's doing that is because he had a very bad night last night. He got clobbered in Utah."

Trump’s tweet — which began with “Lyin' Ted Cruz just used a picture of Melania from a G.Q. shoot in his ad" — is an apparent reference to an online ad by anti-Trump super PAC Make America Awesome, which used a photo of Trump’s wife Melania posing nude in British GQ in 2000 in an attempt to sway conservative Mormon voters.

Cruz responded via Twitter shortly after: "Pic of your wife not from us. Donald, if you try to attack Heidi, you're more of a coward than I thought. #classless.”

"The tweet he was unhappy about was not even a super PAC supporting me. It is an independent group. I don’t know them,” Cruz said. "When Donald gets scared, when he gets angry, when he gets threatened ... So last night Donald threatened my wife, he went directly after my wife."

Fox News Calls Donald Trump Out For "Vitriolic Attacks" On Megyn Kelly

After months of Donald Trump's ugly attacks on Fox News' Megyn Kelly, her network has decided 'enough is enough.'

Fox News issued a statement today calling out Trump's "sick obsession" and "vitriolic attacks" on Kelly.

Via Talking Points Memo:

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

Considering Fox News is the leading conservative news source for most Americans, this should make for an interesting election cycle.