Trump admits skipping debate may have cost him in Iowa

Trump, who appeared exhausted and surprisingly low energy, said he was still feeling positive about his campaign after a second place finish in the first primary of election season, and then took some time to attack Ted Cruz when asked about the front-runner’s admission that people in his campaign had spread a rumor that Ben Carson was dropping out of the race. Now the focus turns to New Hampshire where the nation’s first primary vote takes place next week.

“If Donald Trump wins this thing, it shows that you can do this without them”, Bill Bennett, the veteran conservative pundit who recently criticized Fox News for its public statements about Trump, told CNNMoney. In fact, Trump fell far shorter of Ted Cruz, 24.3 percent of the delegates to Cruz’s 27.6 percent, than Rubio, at 23.1 percent, did in relation to Trump.

And when Trump skipped Thursday night’s debate, ratings dropped to just half the total viewership of the previous Fox News debate in August.

Some of this is due to Trump’s star power, of course.

After all the unbelievable crowds he has drawn, in Iowa and New Hampshire and Florida and Alabama and MS, and the huge debate numbers he has produced for these television networks, we find out in Iowa if the art-of-the-deal guy can close a big deal there.

Combine all that with the Potemkin Village-like nature of the Trump ground game in Iowa, and a stumble was in the cards. I get along great and have a great respect Roger Ailes, but what happened was they put out a press release…

Cruz’s victory and Rubio’s good showing – outperforming the most recent polling – shifts the dynamic of the GOP race, which has for months been defined by Trump’s apparent dominance and the inability of one of the moderate candidates to emerge from an overcrowded field. Primary, caucus, whatever. “I’m not going to say that was me, but believe me it was me”.

“People didn’t talk about my second place”.

Beef might be for rappers, feuds might be for Twitter, but both are not above or below Donald Trump, who will use them to gain him more publicity.

But he accepted defeat in Iowa graciously, congratulating victor Texas Sen.