Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Sunday morning described the numerous female employees at Fox News who accused Roger Ailes of sexual harassment in the workplace as "complaining" and explained how that makes him "sad" because really the company's top executive actually "helped" "some of those women" and he's a "very good person" and a close personal friend.
Ailes was ushered out the door of Fox late last week with a resignation tied to $40 million buyout after former news anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a suit against him for lewd behavior and abuse of power. Even though dozens of other women also came forward against Ailes with similar stories of harassment, Trump defended Ailes and would not deny rumors that he may even have him work on his presidential campaign.
Ailes, explained Trump during the interview with Chuck Todd on Meet the Press, "has been a friend of mine for a long time. And I can tell you that some of the women that are complaining, I know how much he’s helped them. And even recently. And when they write books that are fairly recently released, and they say wonderful things about him."
But, Trump continued, "now all of a sudden they’re saying these horrible things about him. It’s very sad. Because he’s a very good person. I’ve always found him to be just a very, very good person. And by the way, a very, very talented person. Look what he’s done. So I feel very badly."
Watch the interview (the portion regarding Ailes starts at 16:45):
Response on social media was swift, and largely unfriendly, towards Trump's comments:
