Controversial Republican front runner, businessman Donald Trump has threatened to boycott the next Republican debate before the Iowa caucuses if Megyn Kelly will be one of the moderators. In an interview with CNN on Monday, Mr. Trump lashed out at Megyn Kelly, the Fox News host and moderator who asked Mr. Trump at a debate last year if previous remarks he had made were a “part of the war on women.”
Trump dislikes Ms. Kelly
“I don’t like he. She doesn’t treat me fairly. I’m not a big fan of hers at all.” Ms. Kelly is one of the moderators at the debate on Thursday as well, and Mr. Trump said he might not attend. “Nothing’s 100 percent, I’m not 100 percent,” Mr. Trump said in the interview. “I’ll see. If I think I’m going to be treated unfairly, I’d do something else. I don’t think she can treat me fairly, I think she’s very biased. But that doesn’t mean I don’t do the debate. I like doing debates.”
Looking at Trump threats in the past
Trump has threatened to boycott debates in the past. In October 2015, he threatened to boycott if CNBC did not change the criteria, that is adjust the debate timing to two hours instead of three, it did. In December, he also threatened to boycott the CNN debate unless they donated $5 million to a veterans’ charity for not “treating him properly”. It did not, but Mr. Trump still attended. It appears though that Mr. Trump will still attend the debate even if Ms. Kelly is one of the moderators.
Fox News surprised at Donald Trump’s “fear”
After the interview, a Fox News representative said on Monday that the network was “surprised” that Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump was showing such “fear” of host Megyn Kelly. “Sooner or later Donald Trump, even if he’s president, is going to have to learn that he doesn’t get to pick the journalists, we’re very surprised he’s willing to show that much fear about being questioned by Megyn Kelly,” the Fox representative told Business Insider in a statement.
