Trumpless debate: Republicans slug it out in Iowa

Ted Cruz later returned to that comment, saying, “Well, you know, you were joking just before we went on air that it was sort of like Voldermort, He Who Must Not Be Named”.

Meanwhile, in an unprecedented move, Trump skipped the debate to hold his own event across town. It was stated by Fox News on Friday that Trump requested a $5 million donation as “a quid pro quo”, which means “something for something”.

“Cruz… got pummeled last night”.

In a rare show of solidarity, Donald Trump’s Republican presidential rivals Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum joined the billionaire frontrunner at the benefit event that was held at the same time as the top tier Fox News Republican debate, The Christian Post reported. CNN and MSNBC gave his event some coverage, but their combined audience during that time was about a quarter of the crowd watching the Fox debate, according to Nielsen data.

On Friday, Trump defended his decision to snub Fox News, the most powerful media force in Republican politics.

He tells supporters that on Monday “you are going to show, as am I, that real leadership matters, that strong leadership matters and that the people of Iowa know how to pick a strong leader”. This is up vs. the 7.4 overnight rating for the most recent GOP debate, on Fox Business Network earlier this month, but it stands as the second lowest-rated of the six Republican gatherings this cycle. FBN’s debate realized about 11 million viewers. And Thursday’s debate didn’t come close to matching December’s totals. We can’t run a controlled experiment with two debates, one including Trump and one not.

“You also have this incredible obsession with ‘terrorists.’ We can’t let them in because ‘some of them are terrorists, ‘” Welch said, denouncing it as an “indigenous” notion as it is Washington which is providing financial support for terrorists.

January 26: Two days before the debate, Trump polled his Twitter followers, asking,”Should I do the #GOPDebate?” The Republican front-runner backed out of the debate amid an escalating feud with cable network.

A clip from 2011 features Trump fawning over the host after she asks him if he could moderate better than her: “No, I could never beat you”.