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by:Jack Davis
Donald Trump’s campaign followed up his pre-emptive strike about Fox host Megyn Kelly’s role as a moderator for Thursday’s Republican presidential debate with two starkly different options.
“Based on @MegynKelly’s conflict of interest and bias she should not be allowed to be a moderator of the next debate,” Trump tweeted on Saturday.
Fox fired back.
“Megyn Kelly has no conflict of interest. Donald Trump is just trying to build up the audience for Thursday’s debate, for which we thank him,” Fox replied in a statement.
In the wake of Fox’s reply, Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski offered one option.
“Let’s see what happens,” Lewandowski said. “It’s fair to say Mr. Trump is a significant ratings driver for these debates. If we aren’t on stage for some reason, they wouldn’t have the record 24 million viewers and would be back with 1-2 million people.”
Lewandowski suggested Trump could stage his own town hall Thursday night and let Fox’s competitors air the event. “That would be a great idea,” he said.
However, on Sunday, Trump spokesperson Katrina Pierson offered a more soothing tone.
“There’s no love lost between Megyn Kelly and Donald Trump after that first debate; that’s been a very publicized disagreement there,” Pierson said on CNN’s Reliable Sources. She said Trump had not said anything about skipping Thursday’s debate. “But, I think it’s going to be fine.”
Thursday’s debate will be the first time since the first GOP debate in August that Kelly and Trump have been face to face. Kelly recounted to Vanity Fair recently that she herself wrote a question about Trump’s treatment of women that started the antagonism between her and Trump, which escalated after the debate.
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