--- title: Trump Looking Into Whether He Actually Said Those Things About Women description: Megyn Kelly said he had called women "fat pigs," ''dogs," ''slobs," and "disgusting animals" canonical: https://time.com/3989005/trump-women-comments/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-07T16:30:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:47:09.227Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Looking Into Whether He Said Those Things About Women og:description: Megyn Kelly said he had called women "fat pigs" and "disgusting animals" og:url: https://time.com/3989005/trump-women-comments/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt75b31a54e867a0ce/69885e5da988cac2e86b3cd9/donald-trump.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2273 og:image:height: 1279 og:image:alt: US-VOTE-REPUBLICANS-DEBATE og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Looking Into Whether He Said Those Things About Women twitter:description: Megyn Kelly said he had called women "fat pigs" and "disgusting animals" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt75b31a54e867a0ce/69885e5da988cac2e86b3cd9/donald-trump.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Is Looking Into Whether He Actually Said Those Things About Women > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Aug 7, 2015 4:30 PM UTC  Real estate tycoon Donald Trump speaks during the prime time Republican presidential debate on August 6, 2015 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. Real estate tycoon Donald Trump speaks during the prime time Republican presidential debate on August 6, 2015 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.MANDEL NGAN—AFP/Getty Images by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Aug 7, 2015 4:30 PM UTC Donald Trump [says he will investigate](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/trump-recognize-insults-women-32943848) whether he actually said the crass things about women that Megyn Kelly accused him of having said during the first Republican debate. Kelly, one of the moderators on the Fox News debate, drew attention to Trump’s past remarks on Thursday night, saying, “You’ve called women you don’t like fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals.” He responded, “Only Rosie O’Donnell.” “For the record,” Kelly said, “it was well beyond Rosie O’Donnell.” Trump appeared on _Good Morning America_ on Friday to discuss the debate and said he does not recall using the words Kelly accused him of using, but that “We’re going to take a very serious look at it,” the Associated Press reports. On _Morning Joe_, he said, “Not that I’m an angel, by the way. But I don’t recognize those words, so you know, she was spewing out these words, and I’m sitting there.” Trump’s O’Donnell insults are [well documented](http://www.vox.com/2015/8/6/9114625/republican-debate-donald-trump-women), but he has also reportedly used rude vocabulary to describe other women. He is reported to have once called a lawyer “disgusting” when she asked to pause a meeting so she could pump her breast milk. New York _Times_ columnist Gail Collins says he once wrote to her that she had the “face of a dog.” On Friday, he [retweeted](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/629553612839124992) someone on Twitter calling Megyn Kelly a “bimbo.” \[[_AP_](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/trump-recognize-insults-women-32943848)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3989005/trump-women-comments/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3989005/trump-women-comments/"},"headline":"Trump Is Looking Into Whether He Actually Said Those Things About Women","datePublished":"2015-08-07T16:30:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:47:09.227Z","description":"Megyn Kelly said he had called women \"fat pigs,\" ''dogs,\" ''slobs,\" and \"disgusting animals\"","url":"https://time.com/3989005/trump-women-comments/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt75b31a54e867a0ce/69885e5da988cac2e86b3cd9/donald-trump.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt75b31a54e867a0ce/69885e5da988cac2e86b3cd9/donald-trump.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-VOTE-REPUBLICANS-DEBATE","caption":"US-VOTE-REPUBLICANS-DEBATE","creditText":"MANDEL NGAN—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3989005/trump-women-comments/","name":"Trump Is Looking Into Whether He Actually Said Those Things About Women"}}]}] ```