Donald Trump Will Skip GOP Debate Ahead of Iowa

Leading GOP candidate Donald Trump is making controversial headlines once again, announcing he will skip Thursday’s Fox News debate in Iowa.

The announcement comes after speculation that Trump would not attend the debate due to Fox host Megyn Kelly being a moderator. Trump and Kelly have a contentious history together. During a previous debate in August on Fox News, Kelly called out Trump for his comments on women, referring to them in the past as “fat pigs, disgusting animals, and dogs.” The two have been back and forth with harsh words ever since.

I refuse to call Megyn Kelly a bimbo, because that would not be politically correct. Instead I will only call her a lightweight reporter!

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— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 27, 2016

“Let’s see how much money Fox is going to make on the debate without me,” Mr. Trump said at a news conference in Iowa. “It’s time that somebody plays grown-up,” he said.

Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, confirmed Trump would skip Thursday’s debate saying, “He will not be participating in the Fox News debate on Thursday” and that “it’s not under negotiation.”

Leading up to the debate, the argument with Kelly and Fox News reached a new height. The network defended Kelly from the repeated criticisms of Trump. Trump started the spat by tweeting out that Kelly had a “conflict of interest” and “should not be allowed to be the moderator of the next debate.”

Fox quickly jumped to Kelly’s defense explaining that “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.”

The statement put out yesterday by @FoxNews was a disgrace to good broadcasting and journalism. Who would ever say something so nasty & dumb

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 27, 2016

Trump did not stop there and continued to accuse Kelly of “malpractice and bias,” shared the New York Times.

“I don’t like her. She doesn’t treat me fairly. I’m not a big fan of hers at all,” Mr. Trump said in an interview with CNN.

Fox quickly responded once again, still defending Kelly: “Sooner or later Donald Trump, even if he’s president, is going to have to learn that he doesn’t get to pick the journalists — we’re very surprised he’s willing to show that much fear about being questioned by Megyn Kelly.”

The statement went on to detail a “threat” the Trump campaign made against Kelly. From the network’s official response:

“In a call on Saturday with a FOX News executive, Lewandowski stated that Megyn had a ‘rough couple of days after that last debate’ and he ‘would hate to have her go through that again.’ Lewandowski was warned not to level any more threats, but he continued to do so. We can’t give in to terrorizations toward any of our employees.”

The debate takes place Thursday, January 28 on Fox News with or without Trump.

The Donald's Twitter poll results are in. pic.twitter.com/3Nf3bRNWQq

— David Mack (@davidmackau) January 27, 2016