In the lead-up to the debate, Trump blasted Fox News and claimed that a forum without the billionaire businessman would garner “no ratings”. That debate had an audience of around 25 million viewers, so approximately double Thursday night’s viewership.
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The prime-time event lacked some of the heat Trump often injects into debates and instead focused largely on policy. Basically, Colbert played clips of some of Trump’s recent statements and compared them to other statements he’s made in which he’s said the exact opposite thing.
Fox News Channel said on Thursday that Mr Trump had demanded a five million-dollar contribution to his charities in order to appear in the debate, which the network rejected.
Colbert’s first question was whether Donald and Trump believe Donald Trump’s absence at the Republican debate would help improve Ted Cruz’s chances.
As previously reported, Trump, 69, boycotted the Fox-hosted debate because of his ongoing feud with the “Kelly File” host. “I say, hasn’t it already started?” he joked.
But Thursday’s encounter was one of Fox News’s biggest-ever hits and drew more viewers than coverage of a rally at the same time that was hosted by Trump.
Trump began assailing the Calgary-born Cruz over questions about his citizenship status earlier this month.
Stephen Colbert moderated a debate between Donald Trump and Donald Trump.
Then he thanked his fellow candidates for showing Iowa voters respect by turning up. It’s not about Donald Trump.
“Trump is leading with both the inner core of the caucus universe and the fringe – that’s what any candidate would want”, said veteran Iowa pollster J. Ann Selzer, who conducted the survey. He’s an entertaining guy.
Carly Fiorina, also in the undercard debate, said what surprised her the most about running for president was “the chasm, the yawning chasm, between what the national media talks about and what the people of Iowa and the people of this great nation talk about”.
“Marco Rubio has gone on Univision and said in Spanish, ‘No, no, no, I wouldn’t rescind amnesty, ‘”Cruz added”. I kind of miss him.
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Trump leads the way with 28 percent among likely Republican caucus-goers, according to the Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics survey released Saturday.
