{"id":32686,"date":"2016-01-28T09:00:11","date_gmt":"2016-01-28T17:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/debate-feud-injects-fresh-chaos-into-gop-primary\/"},"modified":"2016-01-28T09:00:11","modified_gmt":"2016-01-28T17:00:11","slug":"debate-feud-injects-fresh-chaos-into-gop-primary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/debate-feud-injects-fresh-chaos-into-gop-primary\/","title":{"rendered":"Debate feud injects fresh chaos into GOP primary"},"content":{"rendered":"

DES MOINES, Iowa<\/strong> \u2014 An explosive feud between Donald Trump and Fox News is overshadowing the final sprint to Iowa\u2019s presidential caucuses, injecting a new sense of chaos into the 2016 Republican contest.<\/p>\n

On the eve of the final debate before Iowa voters weigh in, Trump refused to back off his decision to boycott Thursday\u2019s prime-time faceoff. His campaign insisted that debate host Fox News crossed a line with a sarcastic statement mocking him and continued to criticize moderator Megyn Kelly. In turn, Fox accused Trump\u2019s camp of trying to terrorize its employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey think they can toy with Mr. Trump,\u201d campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said Wednesday on MSNBC\u2019s \u201cMorning Joe.\u201d \u2018\u2019Mr. Trump doesn\u2019t play games.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the public clash intensified, Trump\u2019s Republican competitors hunkered down for a day of private debate preparations filled with uncertainty. Skeptical that he would follow through on his boycott, the other campaigns held practice sessions with and without someone playing Trump.<\/p>\n

Some thought the absence of Trump could make another leading Iowa contender, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a prime target for campaigns eager to spark a last-minute shakeup. Cruz challenged Trump to a separate one-on-one debate, a challenge that was dismissed by his opponent.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven 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?\u201d Trump tweeted, referencing Cruz\u2019s birthplace.<\/p>\n

Some foes saw the shakeup as an opening to rise above the ruckus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese kinds of theatrics by Ted Cruz and Donald Trump are an entertaining sideshow, but they have nothing to do with defeating Hillary Clinton,\u201d Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have time for these kinds of distractions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the attention, there was little sense that Trump\u2019s move would significantly change the trajectory of the Republican contest in Iowa. While the former reality television star holds a big lead in most national polls, he and Cruz are locked in a tight race here.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy sense is those Iowa Republicans who weren\u2019t fans of Donald Trump before yesterday, this has only validated their opinion of him, and those Iowans who have been drawn to his passionate attack on the media and political elites in our country are even more emboldened by their guy today,\u201d said former Iowa GOP chairman Matt Strawn.<\/p>\n

Trump has substituted mass rallies for normal meet-and-greet events, made inflammatory statements that would have sunk other candidates, and spent much of his time giving his views on television news shows and Twitter.<\/p>\n

Instead of debating Thursday night, Trump has promised to hold a simultaneous event to raise money for wounded veterans.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s typical Trump. He\u2019s betting on him making a bigger splash,\u201d said Don Kass, chairman of Iowa\u2019s Plymouth County GOP, who predicted the decision to skip the debate would benefit the real estate mogul.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrankly, you know, in the past, anytime somebody thought he did something that cost him, it didn\u2019t cost him,\u201d Kass said.<\/p>\n

Trump is not the first Republican to skip a pre-caucus debate.<\/p>\n

Front-runner Ronald Reagan skipped a debate held ahead of the 1980 Iowa caucuses and wound up losing the state to George H.W. Bush. But Reagan went on to win the nomination.<\/p>\n

In December, Trump threatened to skip a CNN debate unless the network paid him $5 million, which he said he\u2019d donate to charity. The network did not pay up, and he showed up nonetheless. And in October, he and rival Ben Carson\u2019s campaign threatened not to show unless their demands for a shorter run time and other conditions were met. The network adjusted and they appeared.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll show up. I\u2019ve got a $20 bet on it,\u201d former Florida governor and GOP presidential contender Jeb Bush told reporters as he left a Des Moines campaign stop.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s Fox feud dates back to the first primary debate, when Kelly took him to task over derogatory statements he\u2019d made about women.<\/p>\n

The mocking Fox statement on Tuesday was the final straw.<\/p>\n

It said the leaders of Iran and Russia \u201cboth intend to treat Donald Trump unfairly when they meet with him if he becomes president\u201d and that \u201cTrump has his own secret plan to replace the Cabinet with his Twitter followers to see if he should even go to those meetings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taunting and juvenile, Trump and his campaign manager said.<\/p>\n

But some conservative leaders suggested Trump was taking a risk by skipping the affair.<\/p>\n

The debate is \u201cgoing to be the Donald Trump hatefest,\u201d said Mark Meckler, one of the tea party movement\u2019s original leaders.<\/p>\n

Republican operative Ryan Williams offered some perspective on the wild campaign season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe debate chaos is a fitting end,\u201d he said, \u201cto a caucus process that has been nothing short of a complete circus.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DES MOINES, Iowa \u2014 An explosive feud between Donald Trump and Fox News<\/a> is overshadowing the final sprint to Iowa\u2019s presidential caucuses, injecting a new sense of chaos into the 2016 Republican contest. On the eve of the final debate before Iowa voters weigh in, Trump refused to back off his decision to boycott Thursday\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-32686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32686\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32686"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=32686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}