Dismissing last-minute overtures, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has sought to steal the thunder from Fox News’ Iowa-eve debate on Thursday night by pressing ahead with his rival event at the same time not far from the debate venue in Des Moines, Iowa.
“I don’t like being taken advantage of,” Trump told Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, who repeatedly urged the real-estate mogul to reverse his decision to boycott the debate, telling him that he would be making a “big mistake” by shunning the prime-time event just days before the Iowa caucuses.
Trying to convince his long-time friend to change his mind, O’Reilly even commented: “You owe me because I bought you so many vanilla milkshakes”. He went on to tell Trump: “You lose an opportunity to persuade people that you are a strong leader.”
But Trump was unwilling to budge, after having accused Fox News network and its chairman Roger Ailes of “playing games” over his objections to fielding anchor Megyn Kelly as moderator yet again. As he put it, “I have zero respect for Megyn Kelly. I don’t think she’s good at what she does and I think she’s highly overrated.”
Trump’s own event, dubbed a fund-raiser for Veterans and Wounded Warriors, will get under way at Drake University at the same time as the Fox News debate.
Rolling out the programme at a rally in South Carolina, Trump said: “You know what we’re going to doIJ We’re gonna raise a lot of money for the vets. That’s what we’re gonna do.”
Senator Ted Cruz, the No.2 in Republican polls, sought to poke fun at Trump for being so “afraid” of an anchor that he was willing to skip an all-important debate.
Suggesting that Trump might really be afraid of him, Cruz challenged the billionaire businessman to a one-on-one debate any time before the Iowa caucuses on February 1. He even stated that the super PACs supporting him are offering $1.5 mn to veterans’ charities if Trump was ready to debate him.
Trump, however, hit back, quizzing Cruz in a Twitter post: “Can we have it in CanadaIJ” Trump has been raising questions repeatedly in recent weeks over Cruz’s eligibility to run for President since he was born not in the US, but in Canada, albeit to an American mother.
Some other Republican presidential hopefuls also attacked Trump for choosing to boycott the debate. “I think it’ll hurt him that he’s not showing up in the Iowa debate four days before the Iowa caucuses,” former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told CNN.