Donald Trump has been coming under fire for refusing to distance himself from the "birther" movement he helped fuel, which claims President Barack Obama wasn't born in the United States. On Tuesday night's "Late Show," host Stephen Colbert offered the GOP frontrunner a chance to put the question behind him once and for all. 
 
 "I'm going to throw you a big fat meatball for you to hit out of the park right now," Colbert said. "This is the last time you'll ever have to address this question if you hit the ball." 
 
 "I want to hear this one," Trump said. 
 
 "Barack Obama, born in the United States?" Colbert asked. 
 
 When Trump hesitated, Colbert tempted him with the "meatball." 
 
 "It's a meatball, it's hanging out there," Colbert said, mimicking a batter's home-run swing. "Right there -- c'mon." 
 
 But for Trump, it was a swing and a miss. 
 
 "I don't talk about that anymore," he said. 
 
 "You don't talk about it?" Colbert asked. 
 
 Trump said he would rather talk about jobs and veterans, but Colbert cut him off. 
 
 "The meatball is now being dragged down subway steps by a rat," Colbert said, referring to the now-famous pizza-stealing rat. "You missed the meatball." 
 
 The response is in line with what Trump offered on Sunday to a similar question on "Meet the Press." 
 
 "I just don't want to discuss it," Trump told host Chuck Todd, calling it a "long, complex issue." 
 
 After taping his Colbert appearance, Trump tweeted that the birther movement began with Hillary Clinton: ||||| In the wake of Donald Trump's announcement that he would not participate in the Jan. 28 GOP debate because Megyn Kelly is moderating, Kelly has been subjected to a barrage of misogynistic abuse online. 
 
 It's disgusting and depressing, but not at all surprising, for two reasons: Because many people (read: trolls) feel empowered to talk to women online in a degrading, abusive way, and because Trump's campaign is built on misogyny. Trump has trolled Kelly since August, and now his supporters are following his lead. 
 
 @megynkelly Trump isn't afraid of you, he's DISGUSTED by you. There's a difference, you unprofessional cunt. — mike micliz (@MMicliz) January 28, 2016 
 
 A Vocativ analysis of 80,000 tweets directed at Kelly's Twitter handle over 24 hours found that the insults thrown her way were completely gendered. She was called a "bitch," a "dumb blonde," a "whore," a "bimbo," a "skank," a "hooker" and a "cunt." 
 
 It's hard to imagine a man receiving such personal, sexually charged ire. These words are reserved only for women. 
 
 Amazing reporting by @vocativ on nature of insults levelled against @megynkelly in last 24h https://t.co/JBLHVAPXS1 pic.twitter.com/1hGDXNUrz9 — Elizabeth Plank (@feministabulous) January 27, 2016 
 
 On the morning of Jan. 28, Trump tweeted the below image of Kelly, quoting another Twitter user who called Kelly a bimbo. If Trump is going to call Kelly a bimbo -- and imply much worse -- why shouldn't his supporters? 
 
 The Internet, and Twitter specifically, is known for being a particularly unsupportive place for women to express their opinions. Abuse is frequent, and women who are in the public eye -- especially those who speak about women's issues or politics in general -- come to expect misogynist insults, death threats and rape threats. To make matters worse, companies and law enforcement institutions are ill-equipped to prevent or prosecute online abuse. 
 
 We see these realities playing out in Kelly's Twitter mentions, propped up by Trump's explicit attacks against her. 
 
 Despite Kelly's very-much conservative views, she has become a target of Trump's misogyny. (Perhaps for Trump, she represents the portion of the GOP base that has turned against him.) During a post-debate CNN interview in August that Kelly hosted, Trump surmised Kelly had "blood coming out of her wherever." (He later claimed he was referring to her nose.) He has also questioned her professional credibility, calling her a "lightweight" and "third-rate reporter," and has said explicitly that he does not respect her. 
 
 @SusanMondie @luvinlife1967 @megynkelly @DanScavino Yes damn dyed in the wool Feminist bitch. I use to watch her until she attacked Trump. — Liberty Patriot (@speedingisfun) January 28, 2016 
 
 If our next president can't respect a woman enough to let her do her job without behaving like a petulant child, how can we expect him to fight for the issues and policies that would improve the lives of women in this country at large? 
 
 The 2016 election has huge implications for American women. Calling Kelly a "bimbo" is just a symptom of a much larger -- and scarier -- problem. Because when misogyny is amplified at the highest levels of our political system, that misogyny is legitimized. ||||| Donald Trump approves of the way his supporters responded to a Black Lives Matter protester, reportedly beating him during a Saturday rally in Birmingham, Alabama. 
 
 "Maybe he should have been roughed up," Trump said during a Sunday morning call-in appearance on "Fox & Friends." "It was absolutely disgusting what he was doing." 
 
 A CNN reporter captured video of the Saturday incident in which a protester was reportedly punched and kicked after he was tackled to the ground by attendees or security at Trump's rally. At least one onlooker yelled, "Don't choke him! Don't choke him!" according to The Washington Post. 
 
 Trump is heard in the video yelling, "Get him the hell out of here!"
– Two weeks ago, the Huffington Post announced it would append an editor's note to the end of its stories about Donald Trump that defines him as "a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist, birther and bully," among other things. With Trump's Tuesday night win in New Hampshire, it turned the end note into a blazing red homepage headline: "NH Goes Racist Sexist Xenophobic." The story page elaborates: "A Racist, Sexist Demagogue Just Won The New Hampshire Primary" reads its headline. The lengthy article recounts the events of the evening, framing them as a "stunning turn of events for a party that vowed just four years ago to be more inclusive to minorities after failing to unseat President Barack Obama in the bitter 2012 election. What the GOP got instead is a xenophobic demagogue who's insulted pretty much everyone and even earned the endorsement of white supremacists." What Arianna Huffington had to say, via Twitter: "Our @ huffingtonpost splash says it all # NewHampshirePrimary."