Donald Trump to skip GOP debate over stoush with Fox News moderator

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump continued to hold a significant lead over his closest rival in the final days before the Iowa caucuses.

“It’s not under negotiation”, Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski told reporters Tuesday evening.

The Republican candidates are set to square off in the Fox News debate Thursday night, their last debate before Monday’s Iowa caucuses.

“We’re very surprised he’s willing to show that much fear about being questioned by Megyn Kelly”.

Donald Trump will not participate in the GOP Debate on Thursday, he announced.

Kelly challenged Trump during Fox’s first debate back in August and will be back in one of the moderator chairs on Thursday.

Cruz, who has shied away from non-issue attacks on Trump, suggested Trump’s “hair might stand on end” if Kelly “asked him mean questions”.

Instead of attending the debate, “We’ll have an event here in Iowa, with potentially another network, to raise money for wounded warriors”, he said.

“I trust Ted to do what needs to be done”, Perkins told Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly.

As recently as Tuesday afternoon, Trump had hit a new high in the race for the Republican nomination, poll at the 40% mark in the CNN/ORC Poll, with more than 4-in-10 Republican voters offering him their support.

“He is a successful executive and entrepreneur, a wonderful father and a man who I believe can lead our country to greatness again”, Falwell said in the statement released Tuesday (Jan. 26).

Trump shot back on Twitter.

King told Politico he wasn’t making any specific accusations that Trump had promised anyone anything in exchange for an endorsement, but said he is aware that such talks can take place.

As of press time, a slim majority of voters in the Twitter poll – 51% – said he should participate.

The intended message to Trump was clear: “Grow up”. Many supporters wrote that they thought the Fox News moderators, Kelly in particular, seemed determined to take down Trump.

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz speaks during a campaign town hall meeting in Whitefield, N. H., on January 18, 2016. Florida Senator Marco Rubio landed at 8 percent, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson at 6 percent, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush at 5 percent, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie at 4 percent, and the rest at 3 percent or less.

Perry, who endorsed Cruz a day earlier, joined the Republican presidential candidate on the campaign trail in Iowa, talking up Cruz’s stint as solicitor general of Texas and echoing Cruz’s closing argument that he is the most consistent – and trustworthy – conservative in the GOP field.