Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton Lead Iowa Caucus Poll

While the generalconsensus among Republican strategists was that Cruz underperformed in the final GOP debate before the Iowa caucuses, particularly when it came to explaining his past positions on immigration and current opposition to the renewable fuel mandate, some said it wasn’t a campaign-ending flop.

The real-estate magnate and tonsorial innovator grabbed 38 percent of debate mentions on Twitter, according to data from the social network.

On Friday, Trump defended his decision to snub Fox News, one of the most powerful media forces in Republican politics. Trump said Fox was “really unable psychologically to do that and I said that’s ok we went out and raised $6 million dollars which is fantastic so it worked out”.

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.

Editor’s Note: This post was updated after publishing to reflect the most recent poll results.

At this past Thursday’s GOP debate on Fox News, which Trump sat out, Cruz fought to make sure he was positioned at center stage – but did little to take advantage of the opportunity.

Asked if he skipped the debate to purposely wound Cruz’s campaign, Trump replied: “I’d like to tell you it was by design, maybe it was by instinct”. And the first FOX debate in August drew 25 million.

Megyn Kelly wasted no time attacking Donald Trump at the start of the Republican presidential debate on Thursday night. And this is where Donald Trump comes in.

“Ted Cruz is an anchor baby in Canada”, Mr. Trump said, sparking laughter from those in attendance. Still, Patch said he didn’t see any “major stumbles” and that Cruz seemed to be focused more on mobilizing his base – not converting new voters. CNN was watched by 2 million viewers and MSNBC by 1.1 million during the hour in which Trump talked.

Fox’s Trump-less debate had 12.5 million viewers between 9 and 11 p.m., according to Nielsen. Marco, please attack Ted.

Republican White House hopefuls jostled for the limelight Thursday in the absence of master showman Donald Trump, who snubbed the last debate before the party nomination votes begin and upstaged his rivals with a duelling event.

Cruz has claimed those values include a pro-choice statement Trump to “Meet the Press” in 1999.