A Trump-less GOP Debate…
The New York Times’ Nick Corasaniti and Maggie Haberman write that Donald Trump says he’s skipping the next GOP debate airing on FNC and with Megyn Kelly as a moderator. Coward…
Moments after Fox News announced the lineup for Thursday’s Republican debate, Donald J. Trump said Tuesday it is pretty “irrevocable” that he will skip the event, which takes place just days before the Iowa caucuses.
“Let’s see how much money Fox is going to make on the debate without me,” Mr. Trump said at a press conference here, where he continued to attack Megyn Kelly and the crew at Fox News, with whom he sparred at an earlier debate.
“It’s time that somebody plays grownup,” he said.
Fine. When do you start? Coward…
Just after Mr. Trump started speaking, his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, confirmed that he will skip Thursday’s event, saying, “He will not be participating in the Fox News debate on Thursday” and that “it’s not under negotiation.”
Mr. Trump’s absence would leave the main debate stage without the candidate who leads in national polls, one who has been a big ratings draw for past debates. Mr. Trump has threatened in the past to skip debates, but his remarks Tuesday night were his strongest statement yet that he would not participate.
Way to give Ted Cruz an opening! Coward…
Mr. Lewandowski said that instead of attending Thursday’s debate, Mr. Trump would hold an event in Iowa, raising money for the wounded soldiers in the state. He cited recent statements by the network about Mr. Trump as a reason for the decision to withdraw from the event.
“They’ve been very clear about what their position is about Mr. Trump,” Mr. Lewandowski said. “They’ve put out a series of statements in the last three or four hours about what they thought about Mr. Trump.”
Awwww…didums get their nose bent out of shape? Awwww…can dish it out but can’t take it. Coward…
“Mr. Trump said ’That’s fine. Fox is entitled to their opinion.’ He’s entitled to do what he wants,” Mr. Lewandowski said.
Including turning tail and running away. Coward…
Mr. Trump’s main rival, Senator Ted Cruz, accused Mr. Trump of chickening out.
“If Donald is afraid to defend his record, that speaks volumes,” he said, before alluding to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia: “I promise you, Putin is a lot scarier than Megyn Kelly.”
No kidding. What a coward…
Inside Cable News 
January 26, 2016 at 10:04 pm
[…] has a word for Trump’s debate dodging. CNNC: No planted […]
January 27, 2016 at 5:38 am
You are the coward.
January 27, 2016 at 8:17 am
More kabuki theater.
1) If Trump stays away, as he says he will, and holds his own event he wins and FNC loses ratings and face – because of the snarky emails. The coward stuff only works if Fox hadn’t sent the snarky emails.
2) If Trump does the debate – with Kelly – Trump may lose some face but the ratings will be “huge” and Trump will take credit and both Fox and Trump will win.
3) If Fox backs down and Trump goes he wins and Fox loses face but not ratings.
My guess Rupert Murdoch gets involved,Trump goes and Kelly stays but FNC apologizes for the emails and both Trump and Fox give a big donation to ‘Wounded Warriors’.
As a number of people have pointed out this is much like the lead up to a big WWE wrestling match.
In the end Trump will control the news cycle for the last few days before the IOWA caucuses which is the point of all this for him and Kelly will come out with her reputation enhanced without having to do anything of note.
January 27, 2016 at 10:11 am
I’m not sure this is good for Trump. At first, I thought it would be because everyone’s talking about him. But, I’ve seen a lot of conservatives jump ship the past week — first with his comments about he could shoot people and his supporters would still love him and now this.
They like Trump because he’s a tough guy who’s going to confront problems head on and get us good deals. Many of his supporters are the tough guy conservative types, which is why Trump’s resonated with them. He’s like them — he says what he wants, does what he wants and if you don’t like it, you can kiss his ass. He just backed away from a fight, a fight his supporters would’ve said he won (even if Megyn got the best of him, again).
They were already sour over the comment about shooting people. He pretty much called them stupid. Being in the south and working in racing, just about everyone I know down here is a macho, truck driving, short sleeve wearing, gun toting tough guy and even they were disturbed by that comment he made. And that comment legitimately disturbed them.
I’m surprised it took this long for Trump to say something so offensive that even the “I refuse to be PC” crowd was disturbed by it.
A week ago, I thought Trump had this entire election on lockdown. But now, I’m not so sure. A lot of my conservative friends are starting to look at Ted Cruz now. And some of the people who like Trump because he’s a “tough guy” are starting to give Chris Christie a second look.
January 27, 2016 at 10:17 am
Another thing I forgot to mention was the Sarah Palin factor. That turned quite a few people off to him as well, from what I gathered. The more politically literate Trump supporters want Palin to go away. Not to mention, the whole blaming Obama for Track Palin’s domestic violence arrest (which both Sarah and Donald did) didn’t sit well with them either … especially military veterans.
While he has driven the narrative this entire election cycle, because he’s a larger than life personality, he’s made a lot of mistakes in the past week that might hurt him.
January 27, 2016 at 11:35 am
“politically literate Trump supporters”
^^Oxymoron.
January 28, 2016 at 1:12 am
Late on Wednesday I heard a non-partisan analyst make two points which resonated with me — at least compared to what some others were saying.
1. It wasn’t as much about Fox News, or Megyn Kelly, as it was about Donald Trump looking for an excuse to make some news like any reality TV star. He knows how to stay as the main character in this GOP primary.
2. He has a slight lead in Iowa and most front runners have one strategy in common. They don’t want to debate those behind them. They want to sit on their lead and run out the clock — in this case until the Iowa caucuses on Monday.
Which begs the question, “Even if the debate was on CNN, would Trump have simply found a different excuse to boycott?”
Which BTW, is why Mr. Bill’s entire argument and plea to reconsider likely fell on deaf ears.