It’s official: Donald Trump is bolting from Thursday’s GOP debate on Fox News – and he’s taking all the network’s viewers with him.
With America only four days from the first votes of the 2016 election season, Republican candidates are scheduled to appear in Iowa at a high-stakes debate that will not include the front-runner for GOP nomination. Trump has insisted he won’t appear at the event.
Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski tweeted a poll by Fox News host Greta Van Sustern that found 83 percent of viewers say they will not watch the GOP debate now that Trump has said he won’t participate.
When Fox News host Bill O’Reilly begged him to reconsider, Trump wouldn’t bite.
“Bill, we agreed you wouldn’t ask me that question,” Trump said. “So I’ll forget you asked it.”
O’Reilly chuckled and responded, “You’re right. You’re telling the truth. You’re an honest man.”
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Fox News is hosting the Republican debate Thursday evening at 9 p.m. EST at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines, Iowa. Fox's Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace – all of whom hosted the contentious Aug. 6 event watched by 24 million viewers – will be returning to moderate. It will be broadcast live on Fox News and livestreamed online (without cable authentication).
The following eight candidates qualified for the big event: Trump, Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Dr. Ben Carson, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.
The latest Monmouth University Poll of likely Iowa Republican caucusgoers has Trump ahead of the pack by seven points, with 30 percent support. Sen. Ted Cruz has 23 percent; Sen. Marco Rubio, 16 percent; Dr. Ben Carson, 10 percent. The remaining candidates received less than 5 percent.
As WND reported, Fox News CEO Roger Ailes allegedly turned to Ivanka and Melania Trump in an effort to settle the dispute. The billionaire plans to host an event for wounded veterans in lieu of the debate.
Trump's veterans event is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. EST at the Sheslow Auditorium at Drake University.
It will be aired on CNN, Fox News' rival.
Lewandowski predicted on "Good Morning America" that "the American people will tune in" for Trump's alternative event "because they want to support that."
As WND reported, radio host Rush Limbaugh says Fox is acting like a bride whose groom had just fled the church on their wedding day.
"Fox News was acting as if they had been jilted at the altar," Limbaugh said on his national broadcast Wednesday.
"Donald Trump knows that by not showing up, he's owning the entire event. Some guy not even present will end up owning the entire event. And the proof of that is Fox News last night."
The network went into spin mode, with analysts discussing what a mistake it was for Trump to not participate in the debate. Limbaugh felt Fox's reaction was astonishing.
"Don't devote the rest of the night to how a candidate's not showing up because of you, I mean the network," he said. "It's very hard for me to say here. I'm stunned watching this because everybody that's involved has to know this is exactly one of the things Trump is hoping to achieve."
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The radio host portrayed Trump as an "outsider" who has never played by the rules of the game established by the news media.
"He's outside the game. He's breaking all the rules. He's exposing so much as fraud that has gone on inside the American political process for so long," Limbaugh explained.
And though the so-called rules of the media's game suggest a candidate has to appear on their airwaves, Trump is not bowing down and paying homage to the powers that be.
"'Screw the rules,' he's saying," Limbaugh said of Trump. "'Why should I willingly give them another shot at me? In a circumstance they control, why should I do it? What's the sense in it for me? I'm leading. I'm running the pack here. Why in the world should I put myself in that circumstance? I've already seen what's gonna happen.'"
Reactions from Trump's GOP competitors to the news of the front-runner's absence were mixed.
Bush said he's made a $20 bet that Trump shows up to the GOP debate anyway: "Really? He complains about not being treated fairly by the press? He consumes all the press. He's a Stradivarius violinist in the Vienna symphony, man. I mean, the press is just being played like nobody's business. Poor little Donald. Barack Obama doesn't go on Fox either, so now they have that in common."
Paul told CNN: "You know, I think Donald Trump's main addition that he's brought to the debate this year has been silliness, bombast and empty rhetoric and calling people names. I don't think he's added much of substance the whole year. So I don't think he'll be missed. In fact, I really don't think Donald Trump is a conservative. I think he's a fake and a charlatan."
Carson said: "I'm not sure that it matters that much because it's not really about me or Donald Trump or Ted Cruz or any of the candidates. It's about the American people, and it's about our ability to talk to them about the critical issues. Our country is on the precipice right now. Unless we address the real issues and get away from all this peripheral show business, we're not going to make it."
Cruz called Trump a "fragile soul" and told an Iowa crowd: "Anyone running for president of the United States owes it to the people of Iowa to have the humility to come in front of you, to make the case, to answer the hard questions and look you in the eyes. This is a job interview. If he's unwilling to stand on the debate stage with the other candidates, I would like to invite Donald right now to engage in a one on one debate with me any time between now and the Iowa caucuses."
Rubio released the following statement: "America is heading in the wrong direction, and people are right to be angry about it. But it's not enough just to be angry. The next president has to have a real plan to turn the page on Obama and his disastrous policies, and they have to be willing and able to sell that plan to the American people. That's why these debates are so important. These kinds of theatrics by Ted Cruz and Donald Trump are an entertaining sideshow, but they have nothing to do with defeating Hillary Clinton. I'm going to stay focused on uniting the Republican Party so we can defeat Hillary Clinton and turn the page on eight years of liberal failure. We don't have time for these kinds of distractions."
Fox will also host an undercard or "happy hour" debate at 7 p.m. EST featuring the following GOP candidates who failed to qualify for the main event due to low performance in the polls: former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore.
Fox is teaming up with Google and YouTube to ask the candidates questions.
As WND reported, among the YouTube "stars" selected to ask questions is illegal alien "Dulce Candy," who came to the U.S. from Mexico in 1994, and anti-Trump Muslim activist Nabela Noor, who supports Democratic Party candidate Bernie Sanders.
In national polling, Trump was surging ahead of the rest of the GOP pack at 36.2 percent in the RealClearPolitics average Wednesday evening. Cruz came in at 19.3 percent. Rubio garnered 11 percent. Carson had 7.8 percent. Bush remained at 5 percent. Christie came in at 3.7 percent. Kasich, Huckabee, Fiorina, Paul and Santorum all received less than 2.5 percent.
http://www.wnd.com/2016/01/all-eyes-wont-be-on-gop-debate-without-trump/
