Donald Trump's feud with Fox News' Megyn Kelly seemed to come to a close Tuesday night with what was less of an apology and more of a let bygones be bygones moment between the two.
Noting that Kelly was the one who called him to set up the olive branch meeting, Trump said, "I have great respect for you that you were able to call me and say, 'Let’s get together, let’s talk.'"
"I would not have done that," Trump told Kelly in the pre-taped interview that aired on Fox News Tuesday. Trump noted it was "a negative" that he couldn't reach out in a similar way.
As far as controversial retweets calling Kelly a "bimbo" Trump sheepishly said "excuse me" before offering that it’s probably “not the most horrible thing” Kelly has had said about her over the course of her life.
"You’ve been called a lot worse," Trump said with a smile.
Earlier in the interview, the Twitter-loving Republican presumptive nominee acknowledged that it’s the retweets that tend to get him in trouble, calling retweets "more of a killer than the tweets."
Trump attacked Kelly after the first Republican debate when Kelly questioned his derogatory statements about the appearance of women.
"If I don’t go all the way and if I don’t win, I will consider it to be a total and complete waste of time, energy and money"
He came under fire for saying Kelly had "blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever" when referring to the way in which she questioned him during the debate. He has lashed out at her on Twitter since then, including in March.
In the interview Tuesday, Trump called Twitter — on which he has more than 8 million followers — a "modern day form of fighting back." Something he’s done no shortage of during the course of this campaign.
Trump said his reaction to Kelly after the first debate, and his sharp attacks against rivals that have been characterized as bullying, could be partly responsible for his success.
Trump has in the past acknowledged that he shouldn’t have retweeted an unflattering photo of Ted Cruz’ wife, Heidi, which ignited a bizarre public fight between Trump and Cruz.
However, Trump still insisted that "mistake" isn’t the right word for the Heidi Cruz incident — or for anything else he may regret doing over the course of his candidacy.
Instead, Trump said that when you make a mistake you have to move forward. Of dwelling on past errors or correcting mistakes, Trump says he doesn’t do that. “I don’t think that’s healthy,” he said.
"Absolutely I could have done certain things differently. I could have maybe used different language in a couple of instances," Trump said. "But overall I have to be very happy with the outcome."
"If I would not have fought back the way I fought back, I don’t think I would have been successful," Trump said.
The presumptive Republican nominee also said that if he doesn’t make it to the White House he will consider his campaign a failure.
"If I don’t go all the way and if I don’t win, I will consider it to be a total and complete waste of time, energy and money," Trump said.
