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Donald Trump will not participate in Thursday's debate

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<p>For the first time in this very long election cycle, we may have a Donald Trump-less Republican presidential debate. </p><p>The presidential candidate has been threatening to skip Thursday's Fox News Debate for at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPkHW0mA8O4" target="_blank">least a day now</a>.</p><p>"Nothing's 100 percent. I'm not 100 percent. I'll see. If I think I'm going to be treated unfairly, I'd do something else," <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPkHW0mA8O4" target="_blank">Trump said in an interview with CNN on Monday</a>.</p><p>But now it's official. His <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/donald-trump-fox-debate-218264" target="_blank">campaign manager told reporters</a> Trump is skipping the debate and instead will be holding a competing event. <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/donald-trump-fox-debate-218264" target="_blank">The campaign said</a>, "We’ll have an event here in Iowa, with potentially another network, to raise money for Wounded Warriors and Fox will go from having probably 24 million viewers for the debate to, you know, 2 million viewers."</p><p>And it's all Megyn Kelly's fault — sort of. </p><p>"I'm not a fan of Megyn Kelly. I think she's a third-rate reporter. I think she's frankly not good at what she does," Trump said <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLTMN_ASOLQ" target="_blank">in Iowa on Tuesday</a>. </p><p>It started when Trump protested the inclusion of the Fox News anchor as a moderator of the debate. Their beef goes back to the first GOP debate of the season, when Trump complained about her questioning on Twitter and cable news. (Video via <a href="www.foxnews.com" target="_blank">Fox News</a>) </p><p>"She gets out and she starts asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions. You can see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her — wherever," <a href="www.cnn.com" target="_blank">Trump said</a>.</p><p>Trump kept attacking Kelly, her show "The Kelly File" and Fox News itself. And Fox News has stood by their anchor, which Trump clearly didn't take too well. (Video via <a href="www.foxnews.com" target="_blank">Fox News</a>) </p><p>If you've been paying attention, you know a Trump debate boycott isn't new. He threatened to boycott the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/10/15/donald-trump-campaign-raises-specter-of-boycotting-next-debate/" target="_blank">CNBC debate in October</a> if they didn't change the criteria. The network did, and the show went on. He threatened to <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2015/12/donald-trump-threatens-to-boycott-cnn-debate-again-216302" target="_blank">boycott December's CNN debate</a> if they didn't donate $5 million to charity. They didn't but he still participated. </p><p>So clearly, we'll have to wait and see if Trump changes his mind. But don't worry, his campaign says this boycott won't extend past this debate. </p><p><i>This video includes images from Getty Images. </i></p>
Posted at 6:25 PM, Jan 26, 2016
and last updated 2016-01-27 05:59:20-05

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (AP) — Republican Donald Trump on Tuesday bowed out of the final Republican presidential debate before the leadoff Iowa caucuses, saying Fox News moderator Megyn Kelly is "a lightweight."

With 48 hours to go before the faceoff, Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski confirmed Trump's decision Tuesday evening after a press conference in which Trump lashed out at Kelly and said she'd been "toying" with him.

"He will not be participating in the Fox News debate Thursday," Lewandowski said immediately after the press conference.

Donald Trump Presidential Candidate Profile | InsideGov

Trump, who called his decision "pretty close to irrevocable" in the press conference, said he'd hold an Iowa event at the same time as the debate to raise money for wounded veterans. Iowa hosts the nation's opening presidential primary contest on Monday.

"With me, they're dealing with somebody that's a little bit different. They can't toy with me like they toy with everybody else," he said. "Let them have their debate and let's see how they do with the ratings."

He added, "Why do I have to make Fox rich?"

Trump had suggested he might skip the Fox debate earlier in the day, drawing a sarcastic statement from the television network 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 even go to those meetings," the Fox statement said.

A Fox spokesman did not immediately respond to Trump's decision.

The New York real estate mogul's presence has helped produce massive ratings in the previous six Republican presidential debates. His decision leaves seven candidates to share the primetime stage on Thursday: Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.

"Let them have their debate. I'm going to raise money during that period of time for the wounded warriors and for the vets. Let Fox play its games," Trump said.

He added, "I don't' think Iowa's gonna care."

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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