Free Republic

Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he will not be attending Thursday's Republican presidential debate. However, Trump's decision may be justified in light of an invitation from Fox News and Google to three carefully selected citizens, who are all prominent personalities on YouTube. -snip- The second individual, Dulce Candy, is an immigrant from Mexico, a former U.S. military servicewoman, and a Latina. Trump's commitment to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico could very well be a topic of her discussions with the candidates. The third individual, Nabela Noor, is a Muslim American who is an outspoken critic of anyone...

Instead of joining his GOP rivals for the Fox News debate on Thursday, Donald Trump will be hosting his own event in Des Moines that will benefit veterans. Trump announced Tuesday that he will not participate the debate in Des Moines because of a feud with moderator Megyn Kelly, of Fox News. Trump plans to hold his alternative event at Drake University’s Sheslow Auditorium. Doors open at 5 p.m. and the event starts at 8 p.m.

DES MOINES, Iowa — Thursday evening’s GOP debate will be dominated by the man who isn’t there: Donald Trump.

We've Got The Transcript!!! Of Fox News #GOPDebate Without @RealDonaldTrump Update: Open thread: Trump versus O'Reilly. Actions speak louder than words. Trump is fearless going on O'Reilly. Why would anyone spin the line that Trump is somehow "afraid" of Megyn Kelly? Trump is on Fox News to attack Fox News! Make Fox News Great Again??? Who else would dare pull out of a debate a few days away from a close contest in Iowa then attack Fox News on Fox News? Trump has announced his appearance at Drake University for wounded veterans which will air opposite the #2 #GOPDebate. -----------------...

WEST DES MOINES, IA - Today, presidential candidate Ted Cruz invited Donald Trump to a one-on-one debate held before Iowa Republican voters caucus and make their selection for president. The event would take place at Western Iowa Tech Community College in Sioux City this Saturday, January 30th at 8:00 p.m. Cruz suggested the moderators either be radio hosts Mark Levin, Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh, or that the format simply be questions from the audience."We owe it to the men and women of Iowa to ensure that they hear jointly and directly from the two leading Republican candidates so that...

A 1994 illegal immigrant has been picked by Google and Fox to deliver a question to the GOP 2016 candidates in Thursday's Iowa debate. The choice was likely intended to hit Donald Trump, whose proposed immigration reform is opposed by many company executives, including executives in Google and Fox. But any question on immigration will also hit the other GOP candidates, who are trying to balance the competing demands of business donors for more wage-cutting legal and illegal immigration, versus the voters' overwhelming demand for increased wages and salaries. The questioner, Dulce Candy, is a young, well-spoken, attractive and successful...

Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he will not be attending Thursday's Republican presidential debate. However, Trump's decision may be justified in light of an invitation from Fox News and Google to three carefully selected citizens, who are all prominent personalities on YouTube. These three will be allowed to address the candidates directly at the debate. Two of them appear to have been chosen by Fox and Google because of their ethnicity and religion. The first, Mark Watson, does not seem to have a dog in the fight against Trump. The second individual, Dulce Candy, is an immigrant from Mexico, a...

Even though I beat him in the first six debates, especially the last one, Ted Cruz wants to debate me again. Can we do it in Canada?

For years MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews has accused conservatives and Republicans of opposing Barack Obama simply because he's the country‘s first black president and therefore, they're a bunch of racists. "Who‘s going to watch a debate between the two Cuban guys? Who‘s gonna watch a debate between Rubio, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz? Who cares!" Matthews said on his show Tuesday night.

In 2011, Donald Trump was scheduled to moderate a debate on Newsmax TV. During the preparations for the debate Trump went on with Megyn Kelly and lamented that only two candidates had agreed to be in the Des Moines debate at the end of December, days before the Iowa Primary. .... Megyn Kelly asked Trump what his thoughts were on only two candidates confirming for his debate. He told Kelly, "we're not seeing a lot of courage here are we?" Trump continued, "not lots of courage, these Republicans are supposed to be brave."

In just two days, Americans will tune in for the final Republican debate before the 2016 primary season officially kicks off in Iowa, and we’re teaming up with Fox News Channel to make sure every citizen can get the most out of it. To help people get informed before heading to the polls, we’re integrating three new components into the debate: a way to hear directly from candidates on Google; real-time Google Trends data; and questions from some of YouTube’s most prominent voices. Hear from candidates directly, right on Google Political search interest spikes 440 percent on average during live...

MSNBC's "Morning Joe" co-host Joe Scarborough on Wednesday morning applauded Donald Trump's refusal to participate in the Thursday debate hosted by Fox News, comparing Trump to Ronald Reagan. "That’s Trump at his very best. He made a lot of great points there," Scarborough said after playing a clip of Trump's press conference discussing his decision to pull out of the debate. During the presser, Trump said it was childish for Fox News to send out a press release mocking Trump's complaints that Fox host Megyn Kelly treats him unfairly. The news organization released a statement joking that they "learned from...

Fox News, which through the arrogant Megyn Kelly, is leading the charge that ‘Donald Trump will do anything for votes’, is escaping criticism for being willing ‘to DO anything’ to boost ratings It’s not that Fox News narcissist Megyn Kelly allowed herself to be fat-cat fawned over by Michael Moore on last night’s surrealistic “The Kelly File” that should matter, it’s that Fox and Google have turned over tomorrow night’s GOP ‘debate’ to a Muslim YouTube Queen ‘debate participant. “Fox News and Google have invited three YouTube personalities to ask questions at the Jan. 28 GOP debate — including a...

Aside from Donald Trump's likely absence from tomorrow's GOP debate in Des Moines, there are three other interesting developments. First, Rand Paul's return to the main debate stage. Second, Carly Fiorina remains stuck on the undercard. Lastly, Jim Gilmore is in fact alive. -snip-As for the undercard debate, Fiorina, Huckabee and Santorum will have company - Jim Gilmore. This will mark his first debate appearance since the very first GOP debate in Cleveland back in August. For many voters, this will be the first time setting eyes on him. Imagine this if you will. Gilmore turns in such an amazing...

FOX News debate anchors knew they would have a record audience tune in to their Republican debate because of Donald Trump. So, in November, they purposely planned several zingers to get under his skin. Then they all congratulated themselves for their debate antics. And they opened the floodgates of hell on the candidates for future debates by liberal anchors. They are shameless. The anchors didn't even ask a question on the Obama economy, the worst recovery since the Great Depression, until 73 minutes into the debate. The FOX moderators won over Media Matters, who said, "The Fox News moderators appeared...

 Fox News, you’ve just been TrumpedLove him or hate him you’ve got to admire The Donald’s style. It’s not like he hasn’t made it perfectly clear: if you eff with him he will eff with you. So when Fox put out a pre-debate snarky comment about Trump yesterday: "We learned from a secret back channel that the Ayatollah and Putin both intend to treat Donald Trump unfairly when they meet with him if he becomes president. A nefarious source tells us that Trump has his own secret plan to replace the Cabinet with his Twitter followers to see if he should...

Fox has defended Megyn Kelly's obvious ambush of Donald Trump in the first debate. Now, Fox gets into a pissing contest with Donald Trump, publishes a snide, snarky commentary about him and intends to bring in a Muslim apologist/defender to pick up on the ambush theme. Megyn "had a tough couple of days after the last debate" don't ya know. "Self-inflicted wounds are ALWAYS the most painful and embarrassing." While I've been a Cruz supporter, Trump made the right decision to sit out the debate. As a former infantryman, I wouldn't knowingly walk into an ambush either. Now the ball...

Many broadcast hours and column inches are sure to be used today and tomorrow regarding the decision by Donald Trump to skip the Fox News debate in Iowa. Predicatively 90% of those reports will most likely circle around a Donald Trump -vs- Megyn Kelly narrative. Obviously that aspect will be the preferred hook used by Fox News to avoid sunlight; it is also profoundly wrong.

Trump isn't the first top-tier presidential candidate to skip a debate. Ronald Reagan did not attend a Republican debate ahead of the 1980 Iowa caucuses, which he lost to George H.W. Bush. Reagan went on to the win the nomination and the presidency.

We all know Ted Cruz is right, as in politically right of center, and I mean really right. But he's also right about his latest proposal leading up to Monday's voting in Iowa.The Texas senator says he wants to debate Donald Trump one-on-one, and he means right now.Now that would be worth paying for, as in pay-per-view. Or, perhaps to lure The Donald in, find a sponsor willing to donate all proceeds to wounded veterans' groups since that's what Trump said Fox should do with money it would make off a scheduled Thursday night debate that he, Trump, now says...