The former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) says Donald Trump and Ted Cruz should tone down their language in the GOP presidential battle.
“It’s a little bit of a Wild West show,” Linda McMahon told Yahoo’s Katie Couric on Tuesday.
{mosads}“I think the rhetoric has really gone over the top,” added McMahon, a two-time GOP Senate candidate in Connecticut. “Some of the comments that have been made, I think, are quite deplorable. I would like to see our candidates focus on the issues.”
McMahon took particular issue with Trump, saying he has repeatedly insulted women on the campaign trail.
“He’s not helping, certainly, to put women in the best light,” she said. “Maybe he regrets them, maybe he doesn’t. I wish that no candidate would make those comments.”
Trump, the current GOP presidential front-runner, has had a long relationship with the WWE, previously appearing in its broadcasts and hosting an event for the professional wrestling league in Atlantic City, N.J. He’s also been honored in its Hall of Fame.
McMahon said she wasn’t surprised by Trump’s success in the campaign.
“He really is a vessel of this angst and unrest in this country,” she said. “He said it straight out: ‘Don’t worry about being politically correct.’ I think that really is a seed of a great deal of his popularity.
“He was such a great partner, [and] he was a wonderful promoter,” McMahon said of Trump’s involvement with WWE. “He’s very loyal, [and] he’s a patriot.”
McMahon stopped short of endorsing Trump, however, saying the primary is far from over.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I’m not going to endorse anyone for a while. I want to see how it all plays out. I want to see what other candidates have to say.”
Cruz and Trump bitterly feuded over their wives last week, with each accusing the other of insulting their loved ones.
Trump initially charged that Cruz had ties to a super-PAC that published a nude photo of Melania Trump, his wife.
He then threatened to “spill the beans” on Heidi Cruz, the Texas senator’s spouse, prompting Cruz to call him a “sniveling coward.”