Donald Trump Blames ’Taunting’ Statement from Fox for Skipping Debate

The Associated Press
The Associated Press

Billionaire candidate Donald Trump is not going to the Fox News debate on Thursday, and he announced on Twitter why he made his final decision.

“It was the childishly written and taunting PR statement by Fox that made me not do the debate,” he wrote on Twitter. “More so than lightweight reporter, Megyn Kelly.”

The statement from Fox News last night was a response to Trump’s Twitter poll, asking his supporters if he should attend the debate.

“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,” the statement said.

The statement was widely criticized for its hostile tone – especially by anchors on other networks.

“I would tell them to go to hell a lot faster than Donald Trump,” said MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough earlier this morning, adding that he would rather “set myself on fire” than participate in a debate by a person issuing that statement.

It does not appear that Trump is boycotting Fox News entirely, however. He is scheduled to do an interview on the O’Reilly Factor tonight at 8:00 p.m. EST.

Moments ago, Trump announced an event for veterans in Iowa at the same time as the debate on Thursday.

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