Walking a fine between its conservative base and its favorite billionaire, F&F had its girl hit Trump hard and its boys tenderly caress him. F&F co-anchor Gretchen Carlson, a former Miss America, grilled the Donald and his Miss USA 2009 while co-hosts Brian Kilmeade and Steve Doocy schmoozed the real estate titan. A bit of delightful irony since the controversy was engendered by Perez Hilton’s question to Miss USA California Carrie Prejean about same-sex marriage.
In the first of the three-part interview, Gretchen interrogated Trump’s Miss USA 2009 Kristen Dalton about whether the Perez question had been fair, had effected the pageant’s outcome, and had placed Miss California in a no-win situation–not to mention how she would have answered the question herself. Visibly uncomfortable, the beauty queen’s basic answers were: fair, none, no, and yes. When Kristen echoed Perez’ post-pageant suggestion that same-sex marriages be up to the states and added that she felt personally that all couples should have the same protections afforded by marriage, Gretchen described her response as “politically correct.”
In the next segment, Gretchen turned her sights on the Donald himself. She questioned him about the legitimacy of the judges’ docking contestants for their personal beliefs, the trustworthiness of the judging of his pageant, and the Perez question’s effect on the determination of the winner. As to lowering contestants scores for their personal convictions, Trump appeared to agree that it was not a good idea. Seeming less assured, he indicated that the judging was not effected by the Perez question and that he thought Kristen would have won anyway. [Perhaps, his hesitancy stemmed from the prior statements of Perez and fellow Miss USA judge Alicia Jacob.]* Seeming somewhat incredulous, Gretchen concluded, “Well, it’s made it [a] tougher thing for Kristen…to have to come out and defend this and have so much attention going to the first runner-up…[I]t remains to be seen how the public will judge the organization.”
After getting scratched with Gretchen’s thorns, Brian and Steve threw him rose petals. They gave him an approximately four-minute infomercial for his new book, “Think Like a Champion.” In addition, they touted Trump’s eponymous vodka.
A little damage control and free publicity: He’ll be back!
*http://vegasblog.latimes.com/vegas/2009/04/another-miss-usa-judge-says-wrong-answer.html
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=95743
Carpe Diem 