Donald Trump confirmed on Newsmax TV Friday morning that he definitely will attend the next GOP presidential debate being moderated by his nemesis Megyn Kelly on Fox News.
Until now, Trump has remained silent on whether he would allow himself to be grilled by Kelly, who he has warred with for months following her questions during the first GOP debate about alleged sexist comments he’s made.
But Trump told Newsmax TV’s Steve Malzberg, there’s no question he will attend the March 3rd debate, and that his boycott of the last GOP slugfest on Fox was not about his dislike for Kelly.
“I’ll be there. I have no objection to being there,” Trump said. “That had nothing to do with Megyn Kelly, the fact that I went out of the last one. That had to do with a memo that was sent out by Fox that was a little bit taunting and I said it was inappropriate.”
Last month,
Fox released a taunting statement making light of the debate boycott by Trump, who instead held his own counter-event to raise money for war veterans.
The memo read: "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 even go to those meetings."
Trump told Malzberg he still stands by his decision to skip the last debate following Fox’s insulting missive which was reportedly penned in part of Fox News chief Roger Ailes.
“What happened is, because I didn’t do [the debate], I raised $6 million for the vets so I wouldn’t have changed places, I mean, I did the right thing," Trump said.
Until his announcement on Newsmax TV, nobody knew whether Trump would show at the March 3 GOP slugfest, to be held in Detroit five days before the Michigan primary and moderated by Kelly, Chris Wallace and Bret Baier.
"It's a long ways away. We'll see," Trump told CNNMoney during a press conference in New Hampshire Tuesday night.
Even
Kelly wasn’t sure when she was asked Thursday on NBC’s "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon."
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