Fox News says one of Trump’s campaign managers leveled threats about Kelly during a call with one of its execs this week.
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On Tuesday, Trump said he would not participate in the debate, scheduled for Thursday in Des Moines, Iowa, expressing irritation at Fox for allowing Kelly to moderate after her questioning angered him in a debate a year ago.
The announcement was the latest chapter in an ongoing dispute between the billionaire businessman and Fox News, the cable network that’s hosting Thursday’s debate.
The news comes as Trump has been feuding with Fox News over debate moderator Megyn Kelly, posting in an Instagram video today that “Megyn Kelly’s really biased against me”.
Kelly has asked Trump tough questions in the past, and in a Republican debate in August, pressed him on remarks he previously made about women. Fox rejects that; on Monday the network said Trump is just”fearful” of the TV host.
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.
“They can’t toy with me like they toy with everybody else”, Trump said. “It’s impossible to have a fair and honest debate”. In an interview with before the events of the last two days, she said she did not think of the upcoming debate as a rematch with Trump and maintained that viewers won’t see any change in her approach. “Let’s see how many people watch”. But Fox News, the leading television voice for Republican voters, wouldn’t budge.
For his part, Cruz responded to the news by challenging Trump to a “mano a mano” – or, one-on-one – debate any time before the caucuses.
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee on Fox News program, “Fox and Friends” on Wednesday called the affair “a lot of drama” that most Iowa caucus-goers would likely tune out.
“The drama capped an increasingly heated war of words involving Mr Trump, Mrs Kelly and Fox News as the debate neared and as Mr Trump found himself facing the prospect of being questioned by her again before a national audience”, The New York Times said.
“America is heading the wrong direction, and people are right to be angry about it. But it’s not enough just to be angry”, Rubio said in a statement.
Instead, Trump touted a recent endorsement from prominent evangelical leader Jerry Falwell, Jr., the president of the evangelical Liberty University and son of its founder, and pointed to poll numbers showing him ahead of Texas Sen. “Everybody knows my views and I think my views are very plain”, Trump said.
Fox News today took a shot at Trump over his complaints about Kelly, issuing a sarcastic statement.
Scarborough said Trump’s comments were “stinging because it looked like a childish press release”.
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For the past several days, Trump had sought Kelly’s removal as a moderator of the Thursday night debate.
