During an interview with New Hampshire's NH1 News, Donald Trump was asked if he'll attend next Saturday's Republican presidential debate in New Hampshire. Trump responded, "I think I will be there. I look forward to it. I look forward to the debates, as you know." Right, it was obvious how much he loves the debates when Trump chose to cut and run from the Iowa debate to avoid tough questions from Megyn Kelly and declined Ted Cruz' challenge to a debate between just the two of them.
Trump also admitted that he tried to extort a $5 million donation from Fox as a "quid pro quo" in return for Trump's promise to appear in Thursday night's Republican debate:
Yeah, I want money to go to charity and Fox News and frankly others like CNN, they’re making a fortune on the debates.
Trump's decision to participate in the New Hampshire debate comes after he lost his bet that he could run against Fox News. The Donald's cut and run stunt and effort to extort $5 million from Fox News didn't hurt the network at all. Thursday's Trumpless debate got higher ratings than the last debate in which Trump participated.
In fact, Fox reports that Thursday's debate was the second-highest rated telecast in the network’s history. The debate topped all television shows -- including broadcast programs -- on Thursday night in total viewers. Worse for Trump the debate beat CNN and MSNBC combined in total viewers. Those networks aired segments of Trump's alternative event which he hoped would provide some face-saving cover to his cowardly cut and run stunt.
Donald Trump may be the Republican front runner. But according to Frank Newport, Gallup's Editor-in-Chief, the Donald is the most unpopular candidate of either party. Trump's 60% unfavorable rating among all Americans is higher than any nominated candidate from either of the two major parties going back to the 1992 election when Gallup began to track favorability using the current format.
Trumps 60% is significantly higher than other potential 2016 nominees:
Hillary Clinton currently has a 52% unfavorable rating among all Americans, while Jeb Bush is at 45%, Chris Christie 38%, Ted Cruz 37%, Marco Rubio 33%, Bernie Sanders 31% and Ben Carson 30%. Trump's 60% is clearly well above all of these. Putting his favorable and unfavorable ratings together yields a net favorable of -27 for Trump, far above the -10 for Clinton and for Bush, the next lowest among the major candidates.
Trump's 60% unfavorable rating will only get worse. According to Newport, unfavorable ratings tend to rise in the heat of a general election campaign as all the barbs, negative ads and heightened partisanship are taken to their highest levels.
In 1992, Bill Clinton's highest unfavorable rating was 49%. George H.W. Bush's unfavorable reached 57% as election day neared.
In 1996, Clinton's highest unfavorable was 44%. Bob Dole never rose above a 47% unfavorable.
In 2000, Al Gore's highest unfavorable was 42% before the November voting and rose to 52% in December during the recount. George W. Bush was more popular; his unfavorable rating never rose above 41% before the election, but also rose during the recount.
In 2004, George W Bush's highest unfavorable was 47%. John Kerry's highest was 45%.
In 2008, Barack Obama's unfavorable rating maxed out at 37%. John McCain's unfavorable rating reached 44%.
In 2012, Both Obama's and Mitt Romney's unfavorable ratings maxed out at 48%.
Even outside of the presidential elections, of all of these candidates' unfavorable ratings only W ever had an unfavorable rating of 60% or higher. George W Bush's unpopularity reached 66% during his final year in office.
Sen. Marco Rubio won Thursday's GOP debate hands down. During the FoxNews/Google debate Rubio once again demonstrated that he is the most articulate presidential candidate. As he has done in all seven GOP debates, Rubio answered some very tough questions and always responded with answers that sounded heartfelt, sincere and polished but not slick. Rubio, during the heat of a nationally televised debate, manages to offer reassurance, hope and inspiration. And he does that while staying on target -- focusing more on the potential Democrat opponents. And last night he did so with tough moderators who gave no quarter, so much so that Donald Trump chose to cut and run rather than stand and duke it out in seventh Debate.
This video clip released by the Rubio campaign was one of the key moments of the debate and makes the point. It came after a question, by Megyn Kelly to Jeb Bush asking if the attack ads against fellow Republican candidates instead of Hillary by Bush supporting Super PACs do more harm than good:
BAIER: Senator Rubio, first before I ask you a question, any response to Governor Bush?
RUBIO: Well, I believe, and I know that if Iowa helps make me the Republican nominee, I will defeat Hillary Clinton. Hillary doesn't want to run against me, but I cannot wait to run against her. And I cannot wait to earn the opportunity to do it because she cannot be the president of the United States.
She wants to put Barack Obama on the Supreme Court of the United States of America. She said that here in Iowa just two days ago. That would be a disaster for this country.
So I hope and pray and cannot wait until this state and others give me an opportunity to serve this party as its nominee because I will defeat Hillary Clinton.
BAIER: Now let's talk about electability, Senator. TIME magazine once called you "the Republican savior." Rush Limbaugh and others said you likely will be president some day.
But if you look at the recent average of polls in your home state of Florida, you're in third trailing Donald Trump by 24 points. If the people who know you best have you there, why should the rest of the country elect you?
RUBIO: Well, let me be clear about one thing, there's only one savior and it's not me. It's Jesus Christ who came down to earth and died for our sins.
RUBIO: And so -- and I've always made that clear about that cover story.
As far as the polls are concerned, Iowa, on Monday night you're going to go to a caucus site and you'll be the first Americans that vote in this election. You will be the first Americans that get to answer the fundamental question, what comes next for this country after seven disastrous years of Barack Obama?
And let me tell you what the answer better not be. It better not be Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders is a socialist. I think Bernie Sanders is good candidate for president of Sweden.
We don't want to be Sweden. We want to be the United States of America.
And Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton is disqualified from being the commander-in-chief of the United States. In fact, one of her first acts as president may very well be to pardon herself because Hillary Clinton...
Hillary Clinton stored classified information on her private server. And Hillary Clinton lied to the families of those four brave Americans who lost their life in Benghazi. And anyone who lies to the families of Americans who have died in the service of this country can never be commander-in-chief of the United States.
BAIER: Thank you, Senator.
In the heat of the moment Rubio also manages to stay calm, humble and appropriately humorous.
Rubio even handled a gotcha immigration reform question from Megyn -- complete with three video clips:
KELLY: Welcome back everyone. Live, in Des Moines, Iowa. Now, we move onto the topic of immigration. Senator Rubio, we'll start with you. When you ran for Senate in 2010, you made clear that you opposed legalization and citizenship for illegal immigrants. You promised repeatedly that you would oppose it as a U.S. Senator as well. Here are just a few examples. Watch.
[VIDEO CLIPS Shown]
KELLY: Within two years of getting elected you were co-sponsoring legislation to create a path to citizenship, in your words, amnesty. Haven't you already proven that you cannot be trusted on this issue?
RUBIO: No, because if you look at the quote, and it's very specific. And, it says blanket amnesty, I do not support blanket amnesty...
KELLY: ... But, you went on from there...
RUBIO: ... I do not support amnesty...
KELLY: ... You said more than that, Senator...
RUBIO: ... No, I said I do not support blanket amnesty...
KELLY: ... You said earned path to citizenship is basically code for amnesty. You...
RUBIO: ... It was...
KELLY: ... supported earned path to citizenship...
RUBIO: ... It absolutely has been, and at the time in the context of that was in 2009, and 2010, where the last effort for legalization was an effort done in the Senate. It was an effort led by several people that provided almost an instant path with very little obstacles moving forward.
What I've always said is that this issue does need to be solved. They've been talking about this issue for 30 years, and nothing ever happens. And, I'm going to tell you exactly how we're going to deal with it when I am president.
Number one, we're going to keep ISIS out of America. If we don't know who you are, or why you're coming, you will not get into the United States.
Number two, we're going to enforce our immigration laws. I am the son and grandson of immigrants. And I know that securing our borders is not anti-immigrant and we will do it.
We'll hire 20,000 new border agents instead of 20,000 new IRS agents. We will finish the 700 miles of fencing and walls our nation needs. We'll have mandatory E-verify, a mandatory entry/exit tracking system and until all of that is in place and all of that is working and we can prove to the people of this country that illegal immigration is under control, nothing else is going to happen.
We are not going to round up and deport 12 million people, but we're not going to hand out citizenship cards, either. There will be a process. We will see what the American people are willing to support. But it will not be unconstitutional executive orders like the ones Barack Obama has forced on us.
During the debate I thought Kelly was very annoying there. She could have let Rubio answer the question and then engage in the back and forth -- he said, you said exchange. Upon further reelection, the exchange permitted Rubio to display his terrific political skills. This response was a much better than what Rubio said on NBC’s Meet the Press a week ago.
As to the rest of the field, During the debate I thought Cruse had an off night. But after reading the transcript and watching video clips, I think Cruse did well. Jeb Bush may have his best night, was that because Trump was AWOL. Rand Paul had his best debate as well. The other participants? Well at least they showed up, unlike Trump.
NBC's Vaughn Hillyard reports that Sen. Ted Cruz has retuned his Iowa campaign message choosing to not attack Donald Trump. That's a reversal from the previous two weeks, during which Cruz went after Trump's record hitting 17 different positions held - or formerly held - by Trump.
The Cruz campaign also launched two ads against the Trump last week. The first ad, began airing an ad last weekend targeted Trump as a "fat cat" who supports and uses eminent domain. The Second ad goes after Trump for his New York values. It highlights several sound bites from a Meet the Press interview with Trump in 1999. During that interview then-moderator Tim Russert pressed the Donald on his views about abortion and gay marriage. Trump told Russert his stances on the controversial social views were shaped by his residency in New York.
According to Hillyard there are growing questions about how successful those attacks have been and whether they've hurt Cruz more than Trump. So Cruz is now campaigning with stump speeches that mimic those he delivered through the fall and early part of winter. Those speeches deliver a message of "hope and optimism" focusing almost solely on Cruz' own principled Conservative record and policy proposals.
After Trump's rebound in the Iowa polls and what was seen by some as a less than stellar debate performance than usual in Thursday's Trumpless debate, the Cruz retuning is a smart move.
Marco Rubio is airing 30-minute television programs in every Iowa television market this weekend -- the final days before the first votes are cast in the 2016 presidential election. Rubio's 30-minute TV specials will show excerpts of the town hall-style meetings Rubio has relied on campaigning in Iowa. The Rubio campaign has provided the following preview:
The Washington Post's Sean Sullivan reports that Rubio's advisers believe that their best asset is their candidate and the most effective way to communicate is to expose his pitch to many voters as possible. Having seen Rubio speak in both a very large and very small groups, I wouldn't argue with that. No candidate is more articulate than Rubio. But Rubio is running an unconventional campaign. He doesn't seem to have a ground game and is depending on caucus goers to turn out for him anyway.
The Rubio campaign says it plans to field questions on social media and on the phone while the ad is broadcast. It will air in Sioux City on Saturday and Sunday and in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids and Davenport on Sunday.
According to the Real Clear Politics Average, Rubio is polling in third place in Iowa, behind Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz -- 31.4, 24.8 and 14.4. As Leon points out here, Rubio has some work to do. Will the 30 minute ads do it?
Today Rick Tyler national spokesperson for the Ted Cruz Campaign, during an appearance on "America's Newsroom," talked about how Donald Trump's cut and run stunt may damage his Iowa Caucasus effort. Tyler said that he thinks Trump has done great damage to his campaign by refusing to participate in the Iowa Debate tonight:
Iowa has wanted a debate for a long time. They deserve to see all the candidates on the stage so they can make a side by side comparison. For some reason Donald Trump doesn't want that side by side comparison. We would like him to come to the debate. He should participate.
Asked about his sense how Iowa is reacting to Trump's absence, Tyler said Iowans want candidates face to face:
Iowans want to meet their candidates face to face. Big rallies are fine, but actually meeting people, getting a feel for the candidate, that's what Ted Cruz has done for over a year now. Donald Trump flies in, does a big event, he might shake a few hands and then he is off doing something else. Debates are where you can really compare.... if he's not there we can't compare. Our guy will stand up great to Donald Trump and he's not there, people won't see that. I want them to see that. I want them to see the contrast. But, He is making a contrast by not showing up.
When asked about Cruz saying if Trump wins in Iowa he may be unstoppable, he admitted it is possible, "It could be. So that's why we want to win Iowa. We want to stop him right here in Iowa and reverse his momentum." Tyler also talked about the Cruz Campaign's grassroots organization in Iowa. But earlier this week the Cruz campaign announced that it has an impressive grassroots Iowa campaign organization ready for the Caucuses. More than 12,000 volunteers, 1,573 caucus captains across and a county chair for each of Iowa’s 99 counties are working to identify and turn out caucus goers for Cruz. Volunteers, on average, are making up to 20,000 phone calls and knocking on 2,000 doors every day. This week, Cruz is barnstorming the state holding 30 public events in 22 counties leading up to the caucuses. By Monday, Caucus day, Cruz will have completed the "Full Grassley," visiting and holding events in all 99 counties in the state.
You can watch the Interview in the following video:
Donald Trump is betting that he's bigger than Fox News. Trump just wasn't able to deal with the prospect that he would again have to take tough questions from Megyn Kelly in tonight's Republican Presidential debate. The Donald was so upset about this that he decided he could no longer participate in the Fox News debate. Nor could Trump deal with the fact that Sen. Ted Cruz then challenged Trump to a debate between just the two of them. Trump decided to avoid that debate as well. That's right, Trump chose to cut and run rather than suck it up and deal with Kelly, Fox News and Cruz. Instead, the billionaire chose to conjure up a charity event to compete with what Trump is gambling will be reduced media coverage for the debate.
CNN's Eric Bradner finds Trump's gamble risky. He may be mistaken. The Donald has completely dominated media attention since his formal announcement of his presidential candidacy. The Trump media attention saturation has not lessened during the final days before the Iowa Caucuses. If anything Trump's cut and run stunt has further enhanced the attention the media gives him. And the polling, such as the new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll finds Trump has regained his lead in Iowa. So it doesn't appear that Trump's taunting and running against Fox has or will hurt Trump.
Trump seems to understand what some Conservatives have noticed. In 2016, the conservative base is finally realizing that Fox News has become part of the Republican Establishment. As Dylan Byers writes, Fox News is more in line with the increasingly despised Republican Establishment than with Conservatives who support insurgent candidates like Trump and Ted Cruz. And Trump is tapping into the right's anger against Fox:
Trump's six-month war with host Megyn Kelly, which turned nuclear when he pledged to skip the Fox News debate that she is co-moderating on Thursday, has exposed a significant shift in the political-media landscape: The growing divide between ultraconservatives and Roger Ailes' Manhattan-based network.
Trump's attacks on the network -- like those he's made on Mexicans, Muslims, Sen. John McCain, and others -- are no random acts of emotion, conservative pundits and campaign strategists told CNN. Instead, they indicate calculated tactical moves designed to stoke support among a conservative base that no longer worships Fox News as it once did.
Steve Deace, the Conservative Iowa radio host who is supporting Cruz agrees:
Most of my audience has a bipolar feeling about Fox News. They view it as the most reliable place to go for news coverage, but they have grown increasingly untrusting of it when it comes to analysis.... Their feeling is that most of the Bush establishment people they put on there -- from Brit Hume to [Charles] Krauthammer to Karl Rove -- have been in the tank all along for anybody other than Trump and Cruz.
Rush Limbaugh, took Trump's side in this kerfuffle decision and lumped Fox News in with the rest of "the media."
Roger Ailes deserves a lot of credit for this. It all goes back to 2011 when Ailes made his infamous "course correction" Howard Kurtz wrote about long before he was part of Fox News:
But as President Obama’s popularity has plummeted and the country has grown increasingly sick of partisan sniping, something unexpected happened. Roger Ailes pulled back a bit on the throttle.
He calls it a “course correction,” quietly adopted at Fox over the last year. Glenn Beck’s inflammatory rhetoric—his ranting about Obama being a racist—“became a bit of a branding issue for us” before the hot-button host left in July, Ailes says. So too did Sarah Palin’s being widely promoted as the GOP’s potential savior—in large measure through her lucrative platform at Fox. Privately, Fox executives say the entire network took a hard right turn after Obama’s election, but, as the Tea Party’s popularity fades, is edging back toward the mainstream.
The change was subtle at first, hardly noticeable to the casual Fox viewer. But before a year had passed, Conservatives were feeling alienated from Fox News. It has only gotten worse.
Trump may win his bet against Fox News. He may once again receive the bulk of tonight''s media's coverage and even eclipse the coverage of the Republican Presidential debate. But Trump's cut and run stunt will hurt him in the Iowa Caucuses. It will cause caucus goers who were leaning toward Trump to have second thoughts. No one but Trump's hardcore supporters appreciate Trump acting like a spoiled brat.
The Trump campaign has finally responded to the debate offer, telling ABC News, that if Cruz is the last man standing and it comes down to a two-person race, then Trump will be happy to debate him.
After Donald Trump decided to cut and run from the Iowa debate moderated Megyn Kelly Ted Cruz, challenged Trump to a debate between just the two of them:
This race is a dead heat between Donald and me, we are effectively tied in the state of Iowa. If he is 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, anytime between now and the Iowa Caucuses.
Cruz suggested potential moderators from conservative talk radio, including Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh. Cruz continued to mock the Donald saying, that If moderators are "too scary'" for Trump then he and Trump could do a 90 minute "Lincoln-Douglas, mano-a-mano" debate where they could both lay out their vision for the country. Cruz also launched a website called DuckingDonald.com that asks supporters to check "yes" to a debate between he and Trump.
The Cruz Campaign has released the following video of Campaign's national communications director talking about trump ducking the debate and the Cruz debate challenge:
Siobhan Hughes reports that House Conservatives are headed to Iowa to help build support for Sen. Ted Cruz during the closing days before the Iowa Republican Caucuses. Rick Tyler, a spokesman for the Cruz campaign, said the House conservatives could help amplify Cruz’s message that "we have enough wheeler dealers in Washington who are destroying the country — we don’t need the author of 'The Art of the Deal,' who will just give us more of the same."
The group of Congressional Cruz supporters that will knock on doors and give speeches includes:
Rep. Alex Mooney (R., W. Va.), a freshman Republican who is going to Iowa on Friday and plans to stay through Monday, knocking on doors and encouraging Cruz supporters to turn out at the caucuses.
Rep. Mo Brooks (R., Ala.), one of Congress’s biggest opponents of illegal immigration,who plans to speak at one of the caucuses in Iowa on behalf of Mr. Cruz–even if that means missing House votes that are scheduled that same evening.
Rep. Steve King (R., Iowa), an early backer of Mr. Cruz, plans to introduce the other House Republicans to Iowa caucus-goers and help drive home the message that Cruz does have a base of support in Congress.
During his time in Congress, Cruz has worked closely with Conservative House Republicans, earning the nickname "Speaker Cruz." The assistance of the House Conservatives Should help disprove Donald Trump's negative attack that Cruz has no allies in the capital at all.
Tony Perkins endorses Sen. Ted Cruz for President:
Ted is a constitutional conservative who will fight for faith, family and freedom. He will defend our right to believe and live according to those beliefs. Our families will be protected and freedom will once again mean something in America. I trust Ted to fight to pull America out of the political and cultural tailspin that President Obama’s policies have put us in. This is no normal election; this election is about the very survival of our Constitution and our republic.
Perkins is president of Family Research Council (FRC), one of the nation’s leading voices on pro-life and pro-family issues, host of the daily, nationally syndicated radio show, Washington Watch with Tony Perkins and the author of No Fear: Real Stories of a Courageous New Generation Standing for Truth.
Perkins spoke about his endorsement of Cruz with Megyn Kelly on Fox News' "The Kelly File" Tuesday night:
After looking at these candidates, talking to them, and I have many friends in this race. But I believe the one who is best positioned, best prepared, to lead this nation forward pulling it out of the tailspin that this President has put us in, I believe it's Ted Cruz.
He's smart, he's bold, and much like you he's not afraid to upset people to do the right thing. He's not worried about making everyone happy, and I think if you're making everybody happy you're not doing the right things.
And I've known Ted, I've supported Ted, I worked closely with him in the Senate.
Megyn, this is about his standing on Conservative principles, it's about his standing on the Constitution, not his standing in the polls or his standing with his colleagues. That's why I support him. He's a bold leader, he's the kind of leader we need right now in America.
Pressed repeatedly by Kelly about why he chose Cruse over Donald Trump, Perkins said he was not going to say anything negative about Trump.
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