Fox draws 12.5 million viewers to Trump-less GOP debate

Showman Donald Trump has boycotted the final Republican debate before the state of Iowa makes its choice for the Republican candidate for president.

Trump, however, dominated on Google. “Now that we’ve gotten the Donald Trump portion out of the way…” said Ted Cruz, a rival Republican Presidential Candidate, to laughter.

Clicking on the link from the main page brings readers to an 8-paragraph item by Andrew Rafferty headlined “Trump calls Cruz ‘an anchor baby in Canada.'” Here’s the excerpt in full.

One factor that confounds an easy “viewers didn’t care about Trump” conclusion: By dramatically pulling out, Trump nearly certainly increased viewer awareness of the debate running up to last night.

“I had predicted in some of the interviews before the debate that all guns would be pointed at Ted Cruz”, he told CNN on Friday.

Days ahead of that critical test, Mr Trump’s absence on the stage in Des Moines was keenly felt by his seven rivals in the race to be Republican presidential nominee.

The tycoon held a rally at the same time as the debate in Des Moines, which his campaign said was to raise money for military veterans.

Showbiz 411 reports that the Donald J. Trump Foundation gave a total of $2.6 million in charitable donations in the last three years, but only a fraction has gone to veterans groups.

“I didn’t want to be here, to be honest, I wanted to be about five minutes away” at the debate, he told the crowd.

At the Fox News-sponsored debate, Trump’s rivals mocked his brash style and criticized his decision to sit out the debate.

One, of course, is Donald Trump, a billionaire business man and a reality TV celebrity. If that percentage is large enough to punish Trump beyond second place, New Hampshire might look quite different as campaigns scramble east.

And how did Trump’s competing event in Iowa stack up?

Four other candidates – former Hewlett Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina; former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee; former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum and former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore took part in an early undercard debate. “When you’re treated badly, you have to stick up for your rights”, Mr Trump said. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Sen. Donald Trump (@realDonaldTrump) tweeted on Thursday.

The fact is, and I said it, you know I have a very good relationship with Fox, but when somebody doesn’t treat you properly, you got to be tough, you got to be strong, you got to be, you can’t let them push you around.