Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz on Monday told Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly that he thinks rival Donald Trump has a “problem with strong women.”
The remark came during a town hall in Wisconsin on the eve of that state’s primary as Kelly, with whom Trump has feuded for months, discussed Trump threatening to “spill the beans” on Cruz’s wife, Heidi.
{mosads}”You are a U.S. presidential candidate, you are a U.S. senator, but you’re also a human being, you love your wife, and there’s been no apology. The question is, should there be?” Kelly asked the Texas senator.
“Listen, I know that Donald — it makes him feel really tough; it makes him feel like a very, very big man to threaten people. And in particular, he seems to have a problem with strong women. I don’t know why that is, but it seems to really bother him,” Cruz said, adding, “There are no beans to spill” on his wife.
“Heidi Cruz is not remotely scared of Donald Trump,” Cruz said, adding, “She just laughs this off.”
The town hall with Cruz will be airing in full on Monday night.
Trump has sought to move beyond the flap with Cruz, which intensified after he shared an unflattering image of Heidi on Twitter that compared her to a picture of his wife, Melania, from her modeling career.
Meanwhile, Kelly said in an interview broadcast Sunday that there have been threats against her life since she questioned Trump over his remarks about women in an August debate.
Trump stepped up his attacks on Kelly and her “terrible show” in tweets late Friday after Kelly commented that she’d “absolutely” have Trump on her show if he indicated an openness to doing it.
– This story was updated at 4:02 p.m.