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Will Donald Duck Debate With Cruz?

By now most everyone knows that Donald Trump has dropped out of Thursday’s Fox News Republican presidential primary debate. 

In declining to participate Trump cited the ongoing hostility and bias of Fox News commentator Megyn Kelly and the network’s refusal to remove her from the media panel as the justification for skipping the debate. 

Most of the media (Right and Left) tended to echo RedState’s Leon H. Wolf who wrote, “All this week, Trump Donald Duckblustered and threatened that if Megyn Kelly wasn’t removed as a debate moderator, he would not attend the debate. He had reason to think, based on his past experiences with virtually every other media entity in the country, that he would succeed. Fox News finally called his bluff and told him to take a hike.” 

However, CHQ Chairman Richard A. Viguerie has long argued that allowing the largely hostile establishment media to set the agenda in the Republican primary election is strong evidence that the GOP remains “the Party of Stupid.” 

So, we here at CHQ might be the only media outlet that says “We don’t blame Trump” for skipping the Fox debate. 

But that doesn’t mean Donald Trump shouldn’t debate the other Republican candidates for President, so we very much like the challenge Senator Ted Cruz issued to Trump the minute it became known that Trump was skipping the Fox News Iowa debate. 

“I challenged Donald Trump to a debate -- one-on-one, any time, any place,” said Senator Cruz in an email to supporters and media. 

Cruz went on to say in a media scrum after an event in Freedom, New Hampshire, “Anyone running for president of the United States owes it to the people of Iowa to have the humility to come in front of you, to make the case, to answer the hard questions and look you in the eyes… This is a job interview.” 

Mr. Cruz added: “If he’s unwilling to stand on the debate stage with the other candidates, I would like to invite Donald right now to engage in a one on one debate with me any time between now and the Iowa caucuses.” 

“I'm happy to go an hour and a half mano-a-mano, me and Donald, with no moderators any time before the Iowa Caucus,” said Cruz. 

And Cruz went on to point out that the format of a media panel asking the questions has actually benefited Trump and rewarded his bombastic speaking style, “My friend Donald Trump is happy to sling insults and speculate from afar, while tearing others down to try and lift himself up. But now he is refusing to debate matters of substance... If it is really only Megyn Kelly that Donald is afraid of, he will accept my challenge and debate me,” said the Senator. 

Senator Cruz is right. 

We don’t like the media panel format that allows a generally hostile establishment media to frame the issues in the Republican Primary and decide who gets how much time to answer them, but that doesn’t mean the candidates shouldn’t be subjected to what amounts to a job interview by the voters who will entrust them with the highest office in the land on Election Day. 

Which is why we prefer the one-on-one challenge issued by Senator Ted Cruz to Donald Trump. With just a few days to go before the Iowa Caucuses we urge Trump and Cruz to clear their schedules and make the one-on-one, mano-a-mano debate happen.

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The Media "Sheeple" like Ms. Kelly are eating Trump's exhaust

I think the Donald is yet again showing America a streak of independence and defiance as to how he will treat a potentially hostile media; and simultaneously demonstrating the power of who really garners the audience’s interest. It’s not Megyn Kelly or the Fox panel; it’s the Donald.

And I will admit that my TV and radio “affair” with the luscious Ms. Kelly has been significantly snuffed down with her constant demonstrations of snide remarks and on-air distain for the most underrated (by the national media, the political establishment in both the Democratic and Republican parties and a majority of “know it all” political pundits who continue to not get it about Trump) populist candidate of the 21st (and would have been 20th) century candidate.

And frankly, exactly how much more will Iowans or Americans learn from yet ANOTHER twelve Republican candidates’ debate that they haven’t already heard? What is that old phrase? “Actions speak louder than words” and Trump’s dismissal of the GOP debate is resounding like a thunderclap of opportunity for the political opportunists whose daily cud is chewing on Donald Trump’s statements and actions.

The media “sheeple” -- that include Ms. Kelly -- may hold the power of the airwaves to try and manipulate public opinion, but when it comes to the Donald they are almost all behind him sucking on his exhaust pipe. Like Rand Paul, Fox News best consider bringing up another one of the minor league candidates to complete the team roster.