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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.
Yeah that’s not a “blink”, that’s following through on a threat
Leave an empty podium for him.
And after Santorum at the last debate’s undercard, the other participants can charge the excesses from their answers to Trump’s time.
Eric Hines
OK, fine. Trump loses the exposure on the debate stage, the story among the chattering classes will be he chickened out. The other candidates will be pressed to make a statement about it. This will be what everybody is talking about for a couple days which will get Trump’s name out.
Trump will get a zillion dollars worth of unearned media because the talking heads will be eager to talk with him about it.
Meanwhile Trump will have done what so many of us (even us non-Trumpistas) will have been looking for a candidate to do for years: Push back on the media and refuse to play by their rules.
Net gain: Trump
Dilbert creator Scott Adams has it right. Trump is playing according to his own rules, while the rest of the candidates are playing the traditional game. Follow Adams on twitter @ScottAdamsSays or visit his blog. http://blog.dilbert.com/
Adams would be quite a get for the Ricochet podcast.
Good! Let’s have a substantive debate without this clowny wimp.
First person to make reference to Trump at the debate is a loser.
To the surprise of no one, a ghastly fakir who is a serial philanderer, supporter of partial birth abortion and high taxes is… Hen-pecked.
Go away, Donald. Far away. And don’t forget to write.
The endless debates that aren’t really debates make Republicans look stupid. Trump is smart to sit it out.
Boo-Hoo.
One Republican in particular…
This is a yuge mistake. He looks weak and unserious. Voters will either believe he thinks he’s too good to try and win their vote, or that he was afraid a bad showing would hurt his chances of winning Iowa. It’s not a good look and will only give his competitors a chance to shine more and take shots at Trump in his absence. Trump is starting to believe in his own inevitability and polling a bit too much, I think.
Yeah, whatever anyone thinks about Trump’s decision, he’s going to play it as if he’s the one calling the shots. He’s in command. I think it’s a net win for him.
I also think it’ll be a yuuuge mistake for the other candidates and FOXNews to make a big deal of it. Which makes it a safe bet they will.
That’s okay, Donald. I’d be afraid to face Megyn Kelly too. I know all that intelligence can be intimidating.
This is going to put Trump over the top in Iowa. The man is a political genius. He is breaking the mold in an election where the number one request is a candidate who says “to heck with it all”. He is showing everyone that he runs the show.
If any of the other candidates at the debate are stupid enough to mention Trump, now that he will for once be invisible, they should be wrestled off the stage and their campaign suspended.
(hoping that Jeb just can’t contain himself)
Nicely played, Trump！
…by running away from the show.
Why not sit out the rest of the primary too — do the nation a favor.
He’s pushing back at the entitled media who make our candidates dance for their pleasure.
Fox loses here. Trump likely gains. We all gain from this.
Sure they will try to spin this as cowardice. That’s the response juveniles make. Ohhh he’s a scary cat! He can’t stand up to megyn Kelley… To any objective observer that angle fails.
Trump is leading and needs no more exposure. He has effectively won previous debates and has already dealt with tough sometimes nasty questions.
This is a win-win for me as maybe Cruz will win Iowa.
Just watch Fox offer him up whatever he wants to get him back. They want the ratings. So when Fox runs a debate with Trump and without Kelly, he will be ten feet taller than everyone else on that stage. Or he stays out and he is the guy who is running against the whole darn thing.
There is no losing here.
Wow, I might actually watch the debate.
Thanks Donald.
We’ve already seen how well a thin-skinned candidate who votes “present” on controversial issues works out.
I’ve never been a fan of sequels.
1st Q: Senator Cruz: Do you feel Mr. Trump not attending the debate will change the Caucus results?
2nd Q: Senator Rubio: Does Mr. Trump absence affect your final few days before Iowa votes?
3rd Q: Governor Bush: do you miss Donald?
4th Q: Mr. Carson, Mr. Kasich, Mr. Paul, & Mr. Christie, Trump is not here, but why are you?
I really don’t understand why Fox would do that. Selling out one of their own so blatantly would pretty much finish them as a respectable network. I doubt they considered Trump’s threat for even an instant.
If Megyn Kelly is smart, she throws the first punch by tossing a softball question to either Cruz or Rubio (no one else has the sarcastic quickness to play it right) that “I’m sure you’ve noted the debate is lacking Trump tonight.”
Wherein, either Cruz or Rubio replies, “Who?” (slight grin)
Done. No further mention of him throughout the debate by Fox or any other candidate.
My first thought is that it doesn’t make much difference. If you like Trump’s style, you’ll probably like this; the rest of us will probably do without him at the debate just fine.
But it’s a bit of a gamble all around. I’d expect he’ll do some sort of event at around the same time and try to siphon off media coverage. He’s also probably hoping the ratings for the debate drop dramatically. He’s in a way declaring himself above the debates. It could make the rest of the field look smaller, bickering with one another while he sits above the fray.
On the other hand… that Fox response was hilarious, and hilarious with an edge. If anyone can make him look silly instead of tough, maybe they can pull it off yet. Nobody thought better of Rand Paul for taking his toys and going home because he didn’t get his way at the last debate. (Actually… Trump wouldn’t like that comparison much.) Some voters tuning in to the debate to make up their minds might not appreciate his absence, or the reason for it.
On the whole, I think it’s easier to poke fun at Trump over this whole thing than at Fox. That means he sort of loses. On the other hand, we’re here (again) talking about teenage drama. While we’re at that level, we all lose.
NOOOOOooooooo !!!
Good call by Trump. And I think it will benefit my candidate (Cruz) as well by giving him more debate time.
yep…. Trump sticks it to MSM, Trump domination of news cycles continue. Ratings for Fox Debate declines so Trump gets to brag about that fact…. the carnival goes on….
Well, you gotta give him this… He sure is interesting.
Okay he isn’t showing good to know. Now lets not talk anymore about it.