Instead, their eyes are fixed on New Hampshire, whose primary comes eight days later after the Iowa caucuses.
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“I’m a maniac. And everybody on this stage is stupid, fat and ugly”.
Also on the main debate stage Thursday: retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who has a loyal following in Iowa, and Kentucky Sen.
He said: “I kind of miss Donald Trump, he was a little teddy bear to me”.
Trump held his own event – billed as a fundraiser for wounded military veterans – at nearby Drake University and received sporadic live coverage on rival cable news networks CNN and MSNBC.
To the surprise of many political observers, the reality television star and property magnate withdrew from the debate Mr Trump made a decision to withdraw after Fox News refused to drop debate host Megyn Kelly, whom he had accused of bias after they clashed at the party’s very first debate.
Trump threatened to boycott Thursday’s debate if Fox stuck with plans for Kelly to moderate again, but said it was a sarcastic statement from the network that was the final straw.
“His joke about leaving the debate (in reference to Mr Trump) was met with a dead silence from the audience and attempts to attack the moderators failed miserably”, said Mr Kall.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio stood by a previous pledge to shut down mosques where radicalisation is taking place – and promised to tear up the nuclear deal with Iran on “day one” of being president.
Specifically for Fox News, it’s a ways off from the debate it aired in August, the first of this election, which broke records with its 24 million viewers.
“Senator Cruz, before we get to the issues, let’s address the elephant not in the room tonight”.
At his event, Mr Trump said that Fox had been “extremely nice” to him in the hours leading up to the debate and even called him within minutes of its starting debate trying to encourage him to participate.
With their White House hopes on the line, the candidates worked hard to present themselves as best prepared to be commander in chief and take on terror threats. “And if we capture them alive, they are going to Guantanamo”.
Trump also dominated his rivals on Twitter, where he was mentioned over 140,000 times during the debate and gained more new followers than any other candidate – about 10,750, according to social media monitoring company Brandwatch.
There was unanimity, though, on the topic of Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.
Republican presidential candidates (R-L) Ohio Governor John Kasich, Jeb Bush, Sen. “What we need is someone on that stage who has been tested who has been through it”. “When you’re treated badly you have to stick up to your rights…and it’s something our country needs to do”.
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Fox News reported Thursday night that Trump offered to join the debate in progress in exchange for a $5 million donation to his charity.
