Glenn Beck questioned how Donald Trump would react if it were his own daughter, Ivanka, who was being criticized the way he talks about Megyn Kelly. | Getty Glenn Beck: Trump 'abuses' women, should grow up

Glenn Beck says Americans are unable to stop Donald Trump because the nation suffers from “battered spouse syndrome.”

“We no longer know who we really are, many have given up and a few are about to light the bed on fire,” the former Fox News host wrote in a lengthy Facebook post, an open letter to the Republican front-runner.


The post comes in the days following Trump’s string of tweets criticizing Fox News host Megyn Kelly and characterizing her as an “overrated” reporter. Beck defends Kelly as “brilliant, honest, and brave,” and asks Trump to grow up.

“Should a presidential candidate be so thin skinned that he must belittle, abuse, and threaten women? Will we really vote for you? A man who abuses anyone who doesn’t kiss his ring? I know I will not,” he wrote. “Donald, she is a journalist. This is what they do.”

Trump has tweeted about Kelly numerous times in the last week, calling her an “overrated” journalist, and asking his supporters to boycott her show.

“Everybody should boycott the @megynkelly show. Never worth watching. Always a hit on Trump! She is sick, & the most overrated person on tv,” he tweeted.

Fox News, in a statement, characterized Trump’s tweets as an “endless barrage of crude and sexist verbal assaults.”

Beck, who runs Internet site The Blaze, expressed concern that Trump’s comments have put Kelly and her three children in danger. He goes on to talk about verbal and physical abuse, saying his mother was a victim.

“Verbal abuse is just as bad as physical abuse. But men like those who abused the women in my family were smarter, like you, than the man who used to beat my mother,” Beck wrote. “Words, most think, don’t leave marks. But maybe you don’t care, because you deliver your beatings in broad daylight and in full view, daring us to stop you.”

Beck questioned how Trump would react if it were his own daughter, Ivanka, who was being criticized the way he talks about Kelly.

Beck, who has endorsed Ted Cruz and campaigned for him, also suggested that many Republicans have latched on to Trump because “it is their comfort zone.”

“Those in Washington and in the media have been verbally and sometimes physically abusing the American people for years. We are weak, but those of us who see it must begin to stand and offer help and healing for the abused and abusers. ‘America, you are better than this,’ is what she needs to hear. But as always, the abused always breaks it off with an abuser only to find a bigger abuser."