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Trump Will “Definitely Not” Participate in Fox News Debate
Donald Trump will not attend the next Republican debate, the presidential candidate’s campaign manager said just minutes after Trump said he “probably” won’t show up.
“I’m going to be making a decision with Fox, but I probably won’t bother doing the debate,” Trump said at a press conference in Iowa Tuesday night. “I’m going to do something else in Iowa. We’ll have something where we raise money for the veterans and the Wounded Warriors, we’ll do something simultaneously with the debate, but most likely I’m not going to do the debate. I didn’t like the fact that they sent out press releases toying, talking about Putin, and playing games. I don’t know what games Roger Ailes is playing, what’s wrong over there? Something’s wrong.”
Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, later told the Washington Post that he will “definitely not” participate in the debate.
After Trump’s threats of a boycott unless Megyn Kelly was banned from the debates, Fox News released a strong statement in her defense:
Published in GeneralWe learned from a secret back channel that the Ayatollah and Putin both intend to treat Donald Trump unfairly when they meet with him if he becomes president. A nefarious source tells us that Trump has his own secret plan to replace the Cabinet with his Twitter followers to see if he should even go to those meetings.
Never heard of her.
and if he doesn’t officially cancel his spot? (btw watch for Fox to soon announce that they have not heard from the Donald and is assuming that he is planning on attending).
Please tell me whether this blink leads to the firing of Megyn Kelly, the downfall of Fox News, or the collapse of the GOP so I can prepare accordingly.
Ah, that must be a part of the problem. Once you get caught up, perhaps we’ll start hearing a more informed analysis…
If Fox News lets Trump back in you can count on me to join you in trashing them.
You seem to have a higher opinion of Trump’s influence than I do.
…but, but Reykjavik. That was yuuuge.
Brave, brave Sir Trump! Afraid of a girl…
Fox has already announced Trump has pulled out of the debate.
Worse yet. They don’t even have the money to put out a print edition. Trumps conservative forum would be all in print. Published by the best publishers and leather bound and gold leafed. It would be the classiest publication ever, and the smartest.
Worse, asking them “So who’s the better pilot?”
You speak for so many of us. Thank you.
Nuke, not napalm.
Smart.
Ouch! That’s sexist. She has the power…
Check the title of this post. Fox would simply be taking Trump at his word.
It’s about time the candidates negotiated terms of the debates. For too long Republicans have sat back while the liberal media stacked the deck. And Fox News Channel has its own agenda (different from the commendable Fox Business Channel) like posing nasty, superficial questions likely to go viral, just to prove how independent they can be.
Viewers could also use a rest from some of these anchors who keep reappearing at every debate. Chris Wallace makes Jeb Bush look high energy. Meygn Kelly is not an “excellent journalist” as Fox claims. She’s the most profitable shiny young ornament on a network of overworked warhorses like George Will and Charles Krauthammer. Fox dares not yank the reigns on their Foxiest demographic thoroughbred.
I hope Trump sticks to his guns. When you ask for a negotiation — and a candidate has the absolute right to lay out conditions for his participation — then the network refuses to budge, it’s time to walk away. If Trump follows through on his threat, everyone from here to China will know he’s not just another bluffer.
Debates are not necessary when you’re the one dominating media coverage. That’s leverage. What if Bernie Sanders and Michael Bloomberg wind up on the November ballot, and the debate committee wants people like Candy Crowley and John Harwood to ask the questions? We’d want a candidate to negotiate from a position of strength, someone who has demonstrated the will to walk away.
If The Donald doesn’t participate in Thursday’s debate, that will be two or three hours saved for me. I really have no interest, none, in watching the debate without him. Borrrrrrrrring. May the ratings plummet, though I’m sure Fox will gin up this controversy. They’ve been raking it in with their Trump coverage, and now they’ll try to ride in his wake.
If?
Are you suggesting that he could somehow participate after declaring that he definitely won’t?
Is there a point here, or are you just mumbling out loud?
Jim… You come out praising Trump for “standing up” to Fox. And this doesn’t seem a bit … Well, satirical?
No, I don’t care who the left puts forward and who moderates, if we don’t have an actual candidate, it doesn’t make a lick of difference. You’re praising the fact that we get a nice new suit and coat, perfectly content that they’re worn by a donkey, and people are more likely to see the ass than the wool…
Let’s have a real debate with real candidates so we can have a real election. In the meantime, perhaps we can stop bitching about fairness like a bunch of spoiled yalies and Mizzou students…
I was wondering what your point was in bringing up Reykjavik.
Then bring on your invisible Ms. Rubio. Whomever that is. Last Rubio I knew has no business asking for support from the right.
No, I don’t think you were. If you had wondered why I brought it up, you would have asked. Instead, because you disagree, you countered. Not effectively, but there it is.
That’s why I wouldn’t vote for Bush.
If Trump skips does she get promoted.
Adams’ take on this is very interesting. He would indeed be a get for the podcast.
So Donald Trump will stare down Vladimir Putin and make a ‘deal’ with the Russian strong man.
But he can’t face Megyn Kelly.
In this case, this is a silly comparison. Do you expect Trump to declare war (I mean real war) against Megyn Kelly?
The buffoons at Fox are certainly not behaving like a news organization. I think Trump is right to sit this one out. If it hurts him, well then the debate was going to hurt him anyway. I get that you folks have no idea why people support Trump — that’s why you don’t understand this move.
The GOP is Barack Obama’s love sock. Trump won’t be anybody’s. How hard is it for the GOP to absorb that lesson?
OK, here’s news – Fox was going to stack the deck against Trump in an even more underhanded way than I’d expect- remember, this debate was being sponsored by Fox and Google:
http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/01/26/2868743/
Like global warmists are Trump’s apologists. Everything is evidence pointing in the direction of their thesis. Trump could kick a puppy and that would be evidence of his toughness towards puppies, not of rank cruelty.
Scott Adams seems to have fallen for this line of reasoning as well. There’s nothing that can hurt Trump. Everything helps him – bullets don’t merely bounce off of him, they are absorbed by his manly chest and re-emitted as bigger, golden bullets.
Enough. Trump is a gilt Kardashian knockoff through whom internet trolls live vicariously as they fantasize about Trump’s (most recent) hot wife. His mien, like his urine-flavored-cotton-candy-hair is tacky. His tastes, like Caligula. His attitudes, like Billy Bob Thornton in “Monster’s Ball.”
His subtraction from the debate is its biggest addition.