Republican presidential frontrunner Donald J. Trump said that he will not be participating in Fox New/Google debate, and many believe his decision stems from his ongoing feud with Fox’s News anchor Megyn Kelly.
Fox News will still carry on with the debate despite not having the poll-leading, controversial billionaire on the stage, providing one last major debate before the beginning of the Iowa caucuses Feb. 1.
The feud erupted after Fox News’ first major GOP debate on Aug. 6, with Trump claiming Kelly attacked him unfairly. Kelly responded that she asked tough questions about Trump’s past, notably his depreciating comments towards women.
“You’ve called women you don’t like fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals—” Kelly said before Trump interrupted.
“Only Rosie O’Donnell.” he said.
Kelly asked other tough questions about Trumps previous political affiliations and his temperament.
Trump took to Twitter later that night, launching several tweets and retweets accusing Kelly of being unprofessional or unfair.
Wow, @megynkelly really bombed tonight. People are going wild on twitter! Funny to watch.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 7, 2015I really enjoyed the debate tonight even though the @FoxNews trio, especially @megynkelly, was not very good or professional!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 7, 2015Things really got heated when Trump did a phone interview with CNN’s Don Lemon over the weekend following the Aug. 6 debate.
Trump said he wasn’t a fan of Kelly and said one could see “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her — whatever” at the debate. Many found this comment an offensive stab about Kelly’s menstrual cycle, which Trump would later deny.
Kelly started one of her shows the following week with a quick monologue giving her take on the feud, saying that she won’t apologize for doing “good journalism.”
Supposedly, Fox News released a tongue-in-check statement to several news sources on Jan. 26 regarding the Trump-Kelly feud:
“We learned from a secret back channel that the Ayatollah and Putin both intend to treat Donald Trump unfairly when they meet with him if he becomes president — a nefarious source tells us that Trump has his own secret plan to replace the Cabinet with his Twitter followers to see if he should even go to those meetings.”
On Jan. 26, Trump has announced that he will not participate in the Jan. 28 debate. In a statement, he claimed to be the reason for Fox’s record-setting ratings for the first debate; that Fox CEO and chairman Roger Ailes was toying with him; and that he would be holding a fundraising event for the Veterans and Wounded Warrior in Iowa.
Kelly said on the air that Trump was used to controlling thing was having a hard time not being able to control Kelly and the media.
Trump took to Twitter and Instagram on Jan. 27 to backhandedly call Kelly a”bimbo” and a “lightweight reporter” and mock Fox News for their response to a Twitter poll Trump released asking his supporters if he should participate in the debate.
I refuse to call Megyn Kelly a bimbo, because that would not be politically correct. Instead I will only call her a lightweight reporter!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 27, 2016It was the childishly written & taunting PR statement by Fox that made me not do the debate, more so than lightweight reporter, @megynkelly.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 27, 2016
