Mr. Trump is famously politically incorrect. He wants the borders closed, says he will build a wall, won't grant amnesty to people who are living in the country illegally, disapproves of America's getting the short end of the stick on trade and would close the USA to Muslim immigration until we can figure out "what the hell is going on." All these are contrary to the Washington Party's platform. The Democratic wing of the Party needs illegals and Muslims to keep them in office, the Washington wing of the Party needs illegals to keep American wages low. Both sides need free trade, one to make billions the other to rail against.
So Fox and the RNC fused craniums and came up with a plan: Another debate. On Fox. A repeat of the first debate with the same three moderators who were supposed to finish off Trump, but didn't.
No one, including this cool cat, can explain why Fox failed in that first debate to take out Trump. He is a businessman, not a politician. The moderators knew what to do. The first question Bret Baier asked was if any of the candidates would not pledge to support the eventual nominee and not run as an independent. He knew before he asked only one hand would go up. Trump already had said he might run as an independent, so if he didn't raise his hand, he could be accused of pandering, and if he did raise his hand, not being loyal. The classic "have you stopped beating your wife?" kind of question. Trump raised his hand.
Note: Since that night, Jeb Bush and numbers of other Republican Establishmentarians have said they would not support Donald Trump if he is the nominee, but Mr. Baier didn't ask for a show of hands Thursday night. Following Mr. Baier's salvo, Ms. Kelly hit Trump with the war on women broadside. This began the Kelly-Trump war of words.
Following the first debate, Fox's pundits proudly proclaimed that somebody other than Trump had won (as they have in every post-debate since. Thursday night's "winner" was Marco Rubio).
To the Media-Establishment's chagrin, Mr. Trump has continued to lead in popularity and the polls, hence the nuclear option: Another debate, on Fox, featuring the same triumvirate, four days before the Iowa Caucus. The three amigos, foxy Megyn, sober Chris and sweet Bret came loaded for Baier (pun intended). They'd foraged around and scrounged up a Sanders supporting Muslim who didn't want to blow up anybody at the moment (1) and an illegal immigrant who had made good (2) and invited them to ask questions.
Trump being Trump had to see what Fox and the RNC were up to. His difficulty was how to avoid the trap. He got his opportunity when a desperate National Review published a hit piece on Trump and Megyn Kelly invited the editor of National Review onto her show (along with Michael Moore) to take another whack at Trump. Note: National Review published a similar hit piece on Newt Gingrich when he posed a threat to the Washington Party candidate, Mitt Romney, in 2012 (3).
A confident Ms. Kelly tweeted out to @Chris Stirewalt "on 2016 race: This race will look totally different, I promise, on Friday than it does today." #KellyFile #GOP Debate.
Note: Growltiger is befuddled by social media where people blurt out stuff they shouldn't, then are surprised that its public.
Mr. Trump suggested Ms. Kelly wasn't objective so perhaps her bias against him might disqualify her from moderating the debate. Fox denied that Ms. Kelly was biased and stood by her, pointing out that candidates could not select the moderator. Mr. Trump floated the idea that he might skip the debate.
In an attempt to deliver the coup d'grace, Fox put out the following statement: “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." (4, 5).
Another "nefarious source" claims the statement came from Roger Ailes himself.
Trump announced he would not be debating on Thursday night.
On Wednesday evening, Bret Baier interviewed Donald Trump on Special Report, coming close to downright rudeness in his attempt to force Mr. Trump into agreeing to participate in the
All day Thursday, Trump controlled the news. Would he show up? Would he not show up? With Fox's ratings-hence sales revenue-on the line, Roger Ailes picked up the telephone and called Mrs. Trump and Trump's daughter, Ivanka (6).
In the pre-debate show, the three amigos admitted they'd prepared two sets of questions; one set to use if Mr. Trump showed up, another set if he didn't. This was most curious. Why two sets of questions? If this was not an ambush, why not a single set of questions based upon the issues important to voters? The three amigos did not mention that Fox News's debate executive's daughter, Brooke Sammons, is Marco Rubio's press secretary (7).
The night of the debate, Donald Trump appeared a mile away and held a fund-raiser for veteran's. Six million dollars was contributed which will be distributed to various veteran's groups. The Washington-Media
So who won the Fox News-Donald Trump debate wars? No one knows, and no one can or will know until Tuesday when the results of the Iowa caucus are released. Meanwhile, Growltiger leaves her dear readers with the following exchange between Judy Woodruff and Roger Ailes (9):
Judy Woodruff: So you're saying the notion of the candidate saying, "I want to run for President because I want to do something for this country," is crazy.
Roger Ailes: Suicide.
(1) Peaceful Sanders Supporter
(2) I got in so let me stay
(3) Eye of Newt
(4) Take That!
(5) And That!
(6) One ringy dingy
(7) Daddy's Little Girl
(8) Pancakes and Watermelons
(9) Suicide
