Vote in Trump’s Twitter poll: Should he participate in Fox News debate?
Update – Campaign Manager says Trump “definitely” out
Fox News just announced its stage line up for the debate Thursday night.
Donald Trump is center stage.
Donald Trump is upset that Megyn Kelly is one of the moderators of Thursday’s Fox News debate.
Trump has been complaining for days, demanding she be removed. Fox News just said No.
Now Trump is upping the ante, posting this Instagram video complaining of Kelly’s bias:
Trump also is putting his participation to a Twitter vote:
Interesting move. Great showmanship.
But it …. is not clear if he’ll treat it as binding. May depend on whether he likes the result.
Such an internet poll allows people who are against Trump to troll it by voting NO to keep him off the stage.
But to some extent it’s no lose. If people vote for him to stay, he participates and the vote is the excuse for not following through on his threats to withdraw. If people vote for him not to participate, he has a face-saving way out of being seen as backing down.
If Trump doesn’t participate, it will be interesting whether Fox News just removes the podium where he would have stood.
Or leaves it there, but empty.
There’s precedent for that, you know.
Could be two hours of the other candidates mocking the empty podium.
But, it’s just as likely Trump organizes his own event.
If @realDonaldTrump does a town hall instead of a debate, I’ll offer to moderate, along with @benshapiro. Would be great fun. #GOPDebate
— Joel Pollak (@joelpollak) January 26, 2016
Maybe NBC or its affiliates would carry the Trump counter-event, since it was kicked out of the Super Tuesday debate.
This could get interesting.
Update – At a press conference tonight that started just after this post went live, Trump said it’s probable he won’t attend the debate.
“Probably I won’t be doing the debate,” Trump says of the Thursday night Fox News debate.
— Matt Viser (@mviser) January 26, 2016
Trump: “Let’s see how much money Fox is going to make on the debate without me, okay?”
— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) January 26, 2016
Update No. 2 – Trump’s campaign maanager says he’s definitely out:
BIG: Trump will 'definitely not' participate in Fox debate, campaign says https://t.co/rksxXholMS
— Steven Ginsberg (@stevenjay) January 27, 2016
https://twitter.com/jbarro/status/692167844608544768
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