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"&lt;strong&gt;Donald Trump&lt;/strong&gt; is firing back at &lt;strong&gt;Bill Cosby&lt;/strong&gt; after the comedian blasted the billionaire on \"&lt;strong&gt;The Today Show&lt;/strong&gt;\" last week -- claiming Bill's nothing more than an underhanded backstabber.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=\"http://ll-media.tmz.com/2011/04/11/0411-trump-bill-bn-tmz.jpg\" alt=\"0411_trump_bill_BN_TMZ\" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It's all over a statement Bill made on \"The Today Show,\" claiming the Donald should either \"run or shut up\" -- referring to Trump's ambiguous stance on running for President in 2012.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Trump -- who can't publicly declare his candidacy until \"Celebrity Apprentice\" is over -- returned fire today in a statement, claiming, \"While I have never been a fan of Cosby&amp;#8217;s, I had always assumed he liked or respected me because every time I met him ... he was always so nice.\"&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Trumps adds, \"If [Bill] doesn&amp;#8217;t want me to run because he&amp;#8217;s obviously an Obama fan, he should state the reasons and not ... treat me like his best friend, only to denigrate me when I&amp;#8217;m not around.\"&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Check out Trump's full statement after the jump.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Donald's Statement &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;April 11, 2011&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The other day on The Today Show, right after I was interviewed by Meredith Vieira, a terrific person and reporter, I happened to watch Bill Cosby who was on at the end of the show. While I have never been a fan of Cosby&amp;#8217;s, I had always assumed he liked or respected me because every time I met him&amp;#8212;the last time at the David Letterman show where I preceded him as a guest&amp;#8212;he was always so nice, saying &amp;#8220;let&amp;#8217;s get together&amp;#8221;&amp;#8212;asking me out to dinner, and being polite to the point of offering to buy me a suit because he has a &amp;#8220;great tailor.&amp;#8221;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In any event, as I watched the show, the subject of Donald Trump came up.&amp;#160; I was surprised to hear him blabber, somewhat incoherently &amp;#8220;you run or shut up.&amp;#8221; The hatred was pouring out of his eyes when he said this. As I am sure he must know I cannot run until this season of Celebrity Apprentice ends. I know that he has taken a lot of heat over the years&amp;#160; in that he seems to be talking down to the people he&amp;#8217;s talking to and purportedly trying to help. Actually, based on the way he acted, things are not looking too good for Cosby.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I wish he would be more honest, and if he doesn&amp;#8217;t want me to run because he&amp;#8217;s obviously an Obama fan, he should state the reasons and not come into my &amp;#8220;green room&amp;#8221; in front of numerous witnesses and treat me like his best friend, only to denigrate me when I&amp;#8217;m not around. Sadly, he got more attention talking about me than he did on the merits of his own appearance&amp;#8212;maybe he is not as dumb as I thought.&lt;br /&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.tmz.com/2011/04/11/bill-cosby-donald-trump-the-today-show-meredith-vieira-run-or-shut-up-celebrity-apprentice-president-barack-obama-two-faced-phony-backstabber/28/>