Donald Trump-free Republican debate beats Trump rally ratings

“I think she’s highly overrated”, he said.

‘It is a problem for him, by the way, ‘ Trump said of Cruz’s birthplace in Calgary, Alberta.

(AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall). Republican presidential candidates (L-R) retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and Sen.

Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the nomination, has boycotted the event over a feud with host Fox News.

“Fox has been extremely nice the last number of hours”, he told the audience at Drake University, just a few miles away from the debate, in a standing-room auditorium.

Thursday night’s broadcast attracted 12.5 million total viewers, making it the second-highest-rated telecast in the network’s history, Fox said. He’s preferred to make his case to potential voters in national television interviews and on Twitter, and has often faded into the background in the debates. “Now that we’ve gotten the the Donald Trump portion out of the way”.

Fox News Channel said on Thursday that Trump had demanded a five million-dollar contribution to his charities in order to appear in the debate.

Trump pulled out earlier this week, accusing Fox News, and particularly debate moderator Megyn Kelly, of treating him unfairly. “I’m a maniac and everyone on this stage is stupid, fat and ugly, and Ben [Carson], you’re a bad surgeon”, he said.

Trump spent the evening across town at the time headlining a combination rally and fundraiser for the Wounded Warrior Project, and played down his absence from the debate.

“With zero Trump in tonight’s debate, there are now 24 million viewers up for grabs and I am grabbing them”, Colbert declares. The paper endorsed his rival New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie previous year, and he railed against its publisher Joe McQuaid “a bad person”, “incompetent”, “a psycho”, and an “ant”. On Thursday, Trump even referred to Fox News as the “establishment”.

“I took a chance and I don’t even know the end result”, Trump told a crowd of more than 1,000.

Donald Trump was a no-show at the Republican final debate last night after boycotting the event.

Adding to the spectacle, rival Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor who is languishing in polls and attended an undercard event before the main debate, joined Trump at his veterans’ event, as did low-polling former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum.