Everyone in America who has a smartphone, television, or radio knows by now that Donald Trump was not in attendance at last night’s Grand Old Party Debate in Iowa. The Donald skipped out on the GOP Debate and instead held his own rally/fundraiser for veterans on the other side of town from where the debate was being held. Theories on why Donald Trump skipped last night’s debate range from ‘he was afraid to face moderator Megyn Kelly’ to ‘it’s a power move’ and everything in between. That said, FOX News is claiming the ONLY reason Donald Trump skipped the debate is because he demanded and ungodly sum of money from FOX News for participating in the debate and they refused to compromise their journalistic standards by having money exchange hands at any point.
Here’s what Variety.com is reporting:
“(Fox News chairman) Roger Ailes had three brief conversations with Donald Trump today about possibly appearing at the debate – there were not multiple calls placed by Ailes to Trump,” Fox News said in a statement.
“In the course of those conversations, we acknowledged his concerns about a satirical observation we made in order to quell the attacks on Megyn Kelly, and prevent her from being smeared any further. Furthermore, Trump offered to appear at the debate upon the condition that Fox News contribute $5 million to his charities. We explained that was not possible and we could not engage in a quid pro quo, nor could any money change hands for any reason,” Fox News said. “In the last 48 hours, we’ve kept two issues at the forefront — we would never compromise our journalistic standards and we would always stand by our journalist, Megyn Kelly. We have accomplished those two goals and we are pleased with the outcome. We’re very proud to have her on stage as a debate moderator alongside Bret Baier and Chris Wallace.”
Right now, Donald Trump is the frontrunner to grab the GOP Presidential Candidate nomination and it’s NOT EVEN CLOSE. So like it or not, FOX News (who hosted last night’s debate) lost out more on Trump not being there than Donald did. While the trailing candidates were on stage debating one another the whole nation was talking about Donald Trump not being there. So I’m inclined to believe that the reason Trump skipped the debate is because he knew that move would generate more chatter than simply showing up on stage and sparring with his chasers.
Last night was actually the first of the GOP Debates that I wasn’t able to tune in to. I’ve got some out-of-town friends visiting and we were at this Old Florida-style fish shack getting down on some oysters and amberjack covered in delicious crawfish sauce. We were however talking about the debate, and how we wished there was a TV at the fish shack with the debate on. Because this is America, and regardless of your political affiliation you should be watching the debates of both parties. So if anyone wants to fill me in on what I missed last night please hit me up down below in the comments.