Since Rupert Murdoch , who is pushing Bloomburg as a presidential candidate, and owns many news outlets, including Fox News, has been against Donald Trump from the beginning of the debates; it is now looking like Trump will definitely not attend the Thursday night debate, unless he is contacted by Murdoch himself. Murdoch is the head of at least one organization that wants to have open borders in the United States, so Trumps plan to protect our country from terrorists and illegal aliens coming here, has been a thorn in Murdoch' side for many months now. After Fox News released a "snarky comment" , Trump responded by saying that he will not attend the debate, hosted by Fox News and Megyn Kelly. Instead, he wants to host his own program, which will help veterans through any proceeds from the debate. Several other candidates have now approached the Trump campaign offices and asked it they can be part of his program, stating that if Trump believes that he might not be treated fairly, why should they think that they will be treated fairly by Fox News, either. Plus, they also like the idea that Trump would make sure that the income from the program would be used to help wounded veterans, and not just filling the bank accounts of the news networks. I can see that some of the other candidates might very well want to do something like this. Rand Paul was certainly upset with the last debate, and would probably welcome being on Trump's program. I really like that Donald Trump cares about our veterans, and hope that this plan works out ! http://www.wnd.com/2016/01/roger-ailes-turns-to-trumps-wife-daughter-to-salvage-gop-debate/
Well, as Paul Harvey used to say, it's time for "the rest of the story". Fox apparently had a total set-up going on to do a "Killshot" on Trump at the Republican debate tonight. It was NOT about Megan Kelly, she was probably just the distraction (and is now the scapegoat). Fox invited the Islamic organization CAIR to the debate, and gave them front row seats. You can guess that they would be allowed to ask questions, or at the least, they would be making comments about Trump's stand on protecting our national borders. Also invited were several YouTube presences, and an illegal alien; so the whole thing was pretty much scripted as kind of a sideshow, with Trump as the target. Now that he is not going, it kind of looks bad for Ted Cruz, since he will be the next target in the spotlight. I was also reading that it is not just Rupert Murdoch that owns Fox; but also a Saudi prince is a part owner. Obviously, he would not be supporting any plan to limit Muslims coming into the United States, and Fox is one of the largest financial supporters of the Open Borders program. In an interesting development, several of the second-tier candidates may be coming to participate in Trump's Wounded Warrier rally in Iowa tonight ! The whole thing is going to be on CNN, starting the same time as the main debate is starting on FNN. Twitter is full of Trump supporters,and others, who are not watching the debate, and will be watching the Veterans Rally on CNN instead (which is what we will be doing too!). Carly Fiorina has said that she will go to Trumps rally, and her campaign is going to donate to the veterans in exchange for being on the program with Trump. Also, Mike Huckabee has said that he will attend the veterans rally after the preliminary debate. Possibly, Rick Santorum might be going. One tweet said that he was expected to go; but when I looked at his Twitter feed, it did not say that he was going. It makes a whole lot of sense for these candidates to get the extra exposure in Iowa, plus looking good by supporting veterans; so I am wondering if most of them will end up going to Trump's rally ? Trump has a website to donate to veterans, and just today, they have raised over $180,000 to help vets ! I am sure by tonight, that will have gone up a lot more. Here is the information about Murdoch and the Saudi prince. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129584557
Interesting Info about Fox News. I only watch it if there is some breaking news story and I go back and forth between Fox and CNN. I like Shepard Smith though.
Now for the big question: Did it hurt Trump not to attend the Iowa debate just days ahead of the caucus? Both Santorum and Huckabee won the Iowa caucus, Santorum in 2012 and Huckabee in 2008 but neither got the nod for the republican nomination. On the flip side, Reagan skipped the last debate and lost Iowa but in the presidential election swept the nation with the exception of Georgia and Nixon never attended ANY debate and won the presidential bid. Trump's alternative action of having a rally for wounded veterans just 5 miles from the debate had a definite impact on the debates and did take in a tad over 6 million dollars. Which, come to find out while there are about 3 pages of veterans organizations receiving money from the rally the "Wounded Warriors" organization will receive nada because of the ongoing investigations regarding mishandling of funds. One other thing to come out recently about the debates is that Fox's VP, Bill Sammon, has a daughter, Brooke Sammon who is the press secretary for Marco Rubio. It does smell rather "fishy" in that the questions posed in the debate could have been procured by Brooke and reviewed by Rubio in advance. Fair and Balanced? I'm finding more and more reasons why the building mogul, Donald Trump, might have decided to not attend the debates other than the snarky publication that Fox eventually had to appologize for which had absolutely nothing to do with the Trump versus Meagan Kelly fight previously given by Fox. It's now back to the question: Did it hurt Trump or does the Iowa Caucus really have that much to do with our presidential electorate? Personally, media wise I think Trump knocked it out of the park. He's had so much coverage even a new born baby hears his name before the doctor can cut the cord. As an added interest, the Drudge Report stated that in the snap polls, 65% of those polled said that Trump won the debate. I'm not too sure how to take that.