ridiculous questions and you can see there was blood coming out of her eyes. blood coming out of her wherever. a spokesperson for trump had this to say after learning he was kicked out of the event. quote, this is just another example of weakness through being politically correct. for all of those people who were looking to mr. trump coming, we will miss you. blame erick erickson, your weak and pathetic leader. new developments with us and with us is mark preston. disinvited from this event. first put it into context. red state, what is it? an annual gathering of conservatives, specifically social conservatives and it happens every day and happens it s in atlanta today and donald trump was supposed to be the keynote tonight. after the comments last night, the founder erick erickson disinvited him after those comments were made.
of trump. alex, back to you. kristen welker thank you. donald trump may have been disinvite bud many other gop hopefuls are taking the stage in atlanta today. we have already heard from former governor mike huckabee and ted cruz and editor of red state erick erickson took to the stage to explain if trump was not going to apologize for his comments he would not be able to take the stage. joining me from atlanta now, msnbc s benjy sarlin. benjy, how is the red state audience gathered there? how are they reacting to trump s absence from today s schedule? alex it s been striking. i ve been here since thursday where i watched the debate with hundreds of red state activists and attendees and they were cheering wildly for trump then. i heard nothing but wonderful things for the whole next day. show up this morning, erick erickson announces he s disinvited, applause and cheers along a smattering of boos. and it s been frankly hard to
i think she s very overrated. but i go out there and what am i doing? i m not getting paid for this. i go out in and they say lift up your arm and i didn t know there would be 24 million people, i figured, but i knew it would be a big crowd because i get big crowds, i get ratings. they call me the ratings machine. so, i have you know, she gets out and she starts asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions. and you know, you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever. donald trump in his own words. the organizer of the red state gathering, erick erickson says that even though he likes trump, his comments went too far and were inappropriate. he also said, i just don t want someone on stage who gets a hostile question from a lady and his first inclination is to imply it was hormonal. trump s team fired back soon after, saying this was just another example of weakness through being politically correct.
find trump supporters. people are upset about that megyn kelly line there are some raising concerns about his third party threat. it s a fooled errand to predict what happens to trump in the polls, but i can tell you something is happening here at red state. and how about the response of the trump campaign to the disinvitation? what s that been like? well you can usually predict how donald trump responds in tone if not in the exact words and this is with pure pure fury and let me just read a response to you from donald trump who, by the way, says his comments about megyn kelly and blood were misinterpreted. donald trump released a statement saying mr. trump made megyn kelly look really bad. she was a mess with her anger and totally caught off guard. also not only is erick erickson a foetotal loser, he has a history of supporting establishment losers in failed campaign so it s an honor to be uninvited
there is very little interaction because the red state gathering is more of a forum for conservative activists here individually from candidates and where they stand on the issues during this very early phase of the campaign. so the candidates are largely sticking to their individual stands on issues ranging from religious freedom to foreign policy. without taking jabs at the other candidates. the former florida governor jeb bush recently touched on the republican field here listen. my pledge to you is i m going to fight hard i m going to fight with heart. i m going to do this in a hopeful, optimistic way. i ll do my best not to tear down my opponents because i admire most of them. we are going to have to get back to jonathan surrey later because we are having technical issues he is live via live view not satellite. it s a little bit dicey. we ll get back to him when we can. meanwhile, there s a major