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Trump defends Republican debate gig, blasts Karl Rove as 'political hack'
Donald Trump brushed off criticism from conservative pundits Karl Rove and Charles Krauthammer about his selection to moderate a Republican debate and said he believed Mitt Romney would attend the event during a radio interview on "The Laura Ingraham Show" Tuesday.
"Frankly, I know a lot more than a lot of the so-called pundits," Trump said.
"You have a guy like Karl Rove, he's a political hack ... Krauthammer, I don't even know this guy, he knows nothing about me," Trump continued. He went on to call The Washington Post columnist "a very boring guy on television" and said he was "surprised" that Fox News head Roger Ailes would hire him to appear on the network.
"I'm really an entrepreneurial star, and that's why I became a reality star… they didn't pick someone who was a loser," Trump said.
Trump argued that he would shake up the ordinary debate format.
"I'm not saying I'll be better, I'm saying I'll be different," Trump said. "Who knows better? I've never done it before, maybe that will be a good thing."
Ingraham asked Trump to respond to comments by Jon Huntsman, who has said that he will not attend the Trump debate. Huntsman has argued that Trump should have run for president if he was really concerned for the future of the country, rather than returning to host "The Apprentice."
"I think it's sort of a disgusting statement," Trump said. "I'm not allowed to run because of the equal time provision ... I really don't have a choice."
Had Trump decided to run while hosting the show, NBC would have been obligated to offer other candidates equal time on the broadcast network. Ingraham noted that Trump could have simply stopped doing the television show, but Trump was evasive.
"Well, it's very tough to bag a show that's a big success," Trump said. He went on to say that "you and I know the answer" to whether it was more important to do the show or fix the country.
Trump also said that he "hadn't thought about" whether he would still consider endorsing Mitt Romney if he dropped out of his debate, but that he thinks "he'll show."
He also dismissed a statement from Gingrich critical of his real estate practices from the 1980s as "a long time ago" and credited his business savvy as having proven itself.
"I never went bankrupt, and a lot of people did go bankrupt," Trump said. "I never did, they're gone-zo, they're gone."
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