Trump team says he'll ditch Thursday's GOP debate
MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa — Donald Trump and his team said Tuesday the Republican front-runner would skip Thursday's debate in protest of what he called Fox News' "wise guy" reaction to his criticism of moderator Megyn Kelly.
Trump "will not be participating in the Fox News debate and will instead host an event in Iowa to raise money for the Veterans and Wounded Warriors," said a statement from the New York businessman's campaign.
Earlier in the day, before a rally in Marshalltown, Trump told reporters that he "most likely" would be skipping the debate. Shortly after that, Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said the businessman would definitely not participate.
Ted Cruz, who is battling Trump for the top spot in Monday's caucuses, told talk-show host Mark Levin on Tuesday evening he would challenge the billionaire to a one-on-one debate — "away from moderators he is so afraid of."
Trump had threatened a debate boycott all week, describing Kelly as a "lightweight" who is biased against him.
His criticism led to pushback from Fox News. A statement from a network spokesman said, "it should be clear to the American public by now that this is rooted in one thing — Megyn Kelly, whom he has viciously attacked since August and has now spent four days demanding be removed from the debate stage."
"Capitulating to politicians' ultimatums about a debate moderator violates all journalistic standards," the statement says. Lewandowski also threatened Kelly, according to the statement, saying she "had a rough couple days after that last debate," and he "would hate to have her go through that again."
A statement from the network earlier Tuesday drew the businessman's ire: “We 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.”
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Trump has attacked Kelly since an Aug. 6 debate in which the Fox anchor asked him about statements demeaning women. Kelly has declined to respond to Trump's attacks, but Fox has defended her and insisted she be part of the debate.
Earlier this week, Fox said: "Megyn Kelly has no conflict of interest. Donald Trump is just trying to build up the audience for Thursday's debate, for which we thank him."
Trump did not mention the debate boycott during the Marshalltown event in a high school basketball gym, a question-and-answer session with a local talk show host. While his questioner cited the prospect of a "gotcha" debate, Trump said he has no problems with Fox News, "but they have to treat people fairly."
During his news conference, Trump taunted Fox about the prospect of lower ratings for a debate without his presence.
"Let's see how they do with the debate," Trump said. "Let's see how many people watch."