NEW YORK, NY – “Donald Trump and I spoke today,” Ailes said in a statement obtained by CNNMoney. “We discussed our concerns, and I again expressed my confidence in Megyn Kelly. She is a brilliant journalist and I support her 100 percent.”
Ailes continued: “I assured him that we will continue to cover this campaign with fairness & balance. We had a blunt but cordial conversation and the air has been cleared.”
A Fox News spokeswoman said Kelly will briefly “acknowledge” the controversy on her 9 p.m. program — and then move on.
Earlier story:
Trump has been booked for a 7 a.m. Tuesday interview on “Fox & Friends,” co-host Steve Doocy said on Twitter on Monday afternoon.
He said Trump will be talking “about his relationship with Fox News.”
Trump has been lambasting Fox for days, ever since he was challenged in last week’s GOP debate on the network. He says the Fox moderators were unfair to him and that Fox should be “ashamed.”
Ever since then, Fox has dramatically ratcheted down its coverage of Trump. The channel has barely covered Trump’s criticisms of the moderators Megyn Kelly, Chris Wallace and Bret Baier.
But the motor-mouth Republican candidate eased up on his criticism of the channel on Monday morning, tweeting that Fox News chairman Roger Ailes had just called and assured him that “‘Trump’ will be treated fairly on Fox News. His word is always good!”
Tuesday’s appearance on “Fox & Friends” was confirmed soon afterward. It will be Trump’s first time on the channel since Thursday night.
(Around the same time Tuesday morning, Trump will be on CNN’s “New Day.”)
And Trump will also be on Sean Hannity’s 10 p.m. show on Tuesday.
What’s unfolding is a true clash of titans. Fox News is the favored network of Republicans, and Trump is the Republican campaign front-runner.
He has complained over and over again about what he perceives to be the network’s unfair treatment. On Sunday afternoon he tweeted: “It amazes me that other networks seem to treat me so much better than Fox News. I brought them the biggest ratings in history, and I get zip!”
And he has repeatedly and personally insulted Kelly, Fox’s 9 p.m. host.
It is “highly unlikely” that Trump will appear with Kelly in the coming days, a source said — and that’s probably an understatement.
Related: Megyn Kelly says she didn’t ‘attack’ Trump at debate
The fight started several days ago when Kelly and the other moderators posed tough questions to Trump and other GOP candidates.
Kelly was praised for asking Trump about sexist and misogynistic comments from his past. But Trump was furious.
On Friday night, speaking with CNN’s Don Lemon, Trump complained about Kelly’s “anger” at the debate by saying there was “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.” Many people believe he insinuating something about her menstrual cycle, but Trump denied that.
