Donald Trump Says Fox News “Apologized”; Net Details His Talks With Roger Ailes; GOP Debate Addresses Boycott – Barely
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UPDATED, 8:08 PM: The two-hour GOP debate is over, and neither Donald Trump nor his absence was a focus. The moderators and candidates spent less 
than
three total minutes discussing the Republican front-runner all night,
and most of that came right at the outset. Ted Cruz drew chuckles from
this exchange with moderator Chris Wallace: “Chris, I would note that
the last four questions have been, ‘Rand, please attack Ted.’ ‘Marco,
please attack Ted.’ ‘Chris, please attack Ted.’ ‘Jeb, please attack
Ted.’” (Many boos.) Wallace replied, “It is a debate, sir.” Then Cruz
teed up his big line: “Well, no. A debate actually is a policy issue,
but I will say this: Gosh, if you guys ask one more mean question, I may
have to leave the stage.” He did resist the urge to drop the mic —
maybe because it didn’t get the huge laugh he expected.
PREVIOUSLY, 6:16 PM: Fox News Channel chief Roger Ailes and Donald Trump were talking several times today about the leading GOP candidate changing his mind and attending the cable news network’s Republican debate tonight, both sides confirm. According to Fox, Trump supposedly requested a $5 million charity donation to get him on the stage with Ted Cruz and the other GOP contenders but FNC said no. Hence there will be no Trump at the debate after all.
“I didn’t want to be here, I have to be honest, I wanted to be about five minutes away,” Trump told a rally of his own for veterans that he was holding Thursday just down the road from the GOP debate. With over $5 million raised for veterans at his event tonight, Trump revealed that Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter and his wife Laura donated more than $1 million.
“Roger
Ailes had three brief conversations with Donald Trump today about
possibly appearing at the debate – there were not multiple calls placed
by Ailes to Trump,” a FNC spokesperson told Deadline tonight. “In the
course of those conversations, we acknowledged his concerns about a
satirical observation we made in order to quell the attacks on Megyn Kelly,
and prevent her from being smeared any further. Furthermore, Trump
offered to appear at the debate upon the condition that Fox News
contribute $5 million to his charities. We explained that was not
possible and we could not engage in a quid pro quo, nor could any money
change hands for any reason. In the last 48 hours, we’ve kept two issues
at the forefront — we would never compromise our journalistic standards
and we would always stand by our journalist, Megyn Kelly. We have
accomplished those two goals and we are pleased with the outcome. We’re
very proud to have her on stage as a debate moderator alongside Bret
Baier & Chris Wallace.”
Meanwhile,
at tonight’s GOP debate co-moderator Kelly started things off by saying
“Let’s address the elephant not in the room.” Speaking to Cruz, Kelly
said: “Donald Trump has chosen not to attend this event. What message do
you think that sends to the voters of Iowa?” The Texas senator replied
with a prepared attempt at zinger. “Let me say, I’m a maniac and
everyone on this stage is stupid, fat and ugly,” Cruz joked in an play
on Trump’s words. “And Ben, you’re a terrible surgeon. Now that we’ve
gotten the Donald Trump portion out of the way,” he added to applause
and laugher, “I want to thank everyone here for showing the men and
women of Iowa the respect to show up and make the case to the people of
the state and the people of the country why we would make the best
commander in chief.”
While Trump is skipping the last GOP contenders gathering and likely taking some of the ratings with him, the candidate did hand FNC some choice numbers out of his satellite sit down with Bill O’Reilly last night. In what was the most watched show on all of cable on Wednesday, The O’Reilly Factor host one-upped his The Kelly File colleague but was ultimately unsuccessful in his attempts to get frontrunner Trump to reconsider his belief that Kelly is biased, that FNC taunted him in a “childishly written” PR statement and attending the debate.
“When
Fox called me, because they very much want me there, they called me
just now,” Trump told CNN earlier Thursday as he prepared to head to his
own fundraising event for veterans in Iowa tonight. “They called me,
and in all fairness, very nicely but they want me there very badly.”
Noting his war of words with FNC and claims that co-moderator Megyn
Kelly is biased against him, Trump said, “I never once asked that she be
removed what I didn’t like is their public relations statement where
they were sort of taunting and I didn’t think was appropriate and I
didn’t think was nice.”
than
three total minutes discussing the Republican front-runner all night,
and most of that came right at the outset. Ted Cruz drew chuckles from
this exchange with moderator Chris Wallace: “Chris, I would note that
the last four questions have been, ‘Rand, please attack Ted.’ ‘Marco,
please attack Ted.’ ‘Chris, please attack Ted.’ ‘Jeb, please attack
Ted.’” (Many boos.) Wallace replied, “It is a debate, sir.” Then Cruz
teed up his big line: “Well, no. A debate actually is a policy issue,
but I will say this: Gosh, if you guys ask one more mean question, I may
have to leave the stage.” He did resist the urge to drop the mic —
maybe because it didn’t get the huge laugh he expected.PREVIOUSLY, 6:16 PM: Fox News Channel chief Roger Ailes and Donald Trump were talking several times today about the leading GOP candidate changing his mind and attending the cable news network’s Republican debate tonight, both sides confirm. According to Fox, Trump supposedly requested a $5 million charity donation to get him on the stage with Ted Cruz and the other GOP contenders but FNC said no. Hence there will be no Trump at the debate after all.
“I didn’t want to be here, I have to be honest, I wanted to be about five minutes away,” Trump told a rally of his own for veterans that he was holding Thursday just down the road from the GOP debate. With over $5 million raised for veterans at his event tonight, Trump revealed that Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter and his wife Laura donated more than $1 million.
“Roger
Ailes had three brief conversations with Donald Trump today about
possibly appearing at the debate – there were not multiple calls placed
by Ailes to Trump,” a FNC spokesperson told Deadline tonight. “In the
course of those conversations, we acknowledged his concerns about a
satirical observation we made in order to quell the attacks on Megyn Kelly,
and prevent her from being smeared any further. Furthermore, Trump
offered to appear at the debate upon the condition that Fox News
contribute $5 million to his charities. We explained that was not
possible and we could not engage in a quid pro quo, nor could any money
change hands for any reason. In the last 48 hours, we’ve kept two issues
at the forefront — we would never compromise our journalistic standards
and we would always stand by our journalist, Megyn Kelly. We have
accomplished those two goals and we are pleased with the outcome. We’re
very proud to have her on stage as a debate moderator alongside Bret
Baier & Chris Wallace.”Meanwhile,
at tonight’s GOP debate co-moderator Kelly started things off by saying
“Let’s address the elephant not in the room.” Speaking to Cruz, Kelly
said: “Donald Trump has chosen not to attend this event. What message do
you think that sends to the voters of Iowa?” The Texas senator replied
with a prepared attempt at zinger. “Let me say, I’m a maniac and
everyone on this stage is stupid, fat and ugly,” Cruz joked in an play
on Trump’s words. “And Ben, you’re a terrible surgeon. Now that we’ve
gotten the Donald Trump portion out of the way,” he added to applause
and laugher, “I want to thank everyone here for showing the men and
women of Iowa the respect to show up and make the case to the people of
the state and the people of the country why we would make the best
commander in chief.”While Trump is skipping the last GOP contenders gathering and likely taking some of the ratings with him, the candidate did hand FNC some choice numbers out of his satellite sit down with Bill O’Reilly last night. In what was the most watched show on all of cable on Wednesday, The O’Reilly Factor host one-upped his The Kelly File colleague but was ultimately unsuccessful in his attempts to get frontrunner Trump to reconsider his belief that Kelly is biased, that FNC taunted him in a “childishly written” PR statement and attending the debate.
“When
Fox called me, because they very much want me there, they called me
just now,” Trump told CNN earlier Thursday as he prepared to head to his
own fundraising event for veterans in Iowa tonight. “They called me,
and in all fairness, very nicely but they want me there very badly.”
Noting his war of words with FNC and claims that co-moderator Megyn
Kelly is biased against him, Trump said, “I never once asked that she be
removed what I didn’t like is their public relations statement where
they were sort of taunting and I didn’t think was appropriate and I
didn’t think was nice.”
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