Trump to miss debate over Fox moderator, citing bias

Donald Trump says he will in all likelihood miss the last Republican debate before the Iowa causes because Fox moderator Megyn Kelly is biased against him.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump Source: AAP

US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump says that "most likely I won't be doing the debate" on Fox News.

The debate is scheduled for Thursday night in Des Moines, Iowa.

The billionaire businessman made the comment at a news conference in Marshalltown, Iowa, as the nomination race nears its first contest, the Iowa caucuses, on Monday.

Trump has been engaged in a public spat with Fox News since a debate last August in which he said he was subject to unfair questioning by moderator Megyn Kelly.

"Let's see how much money Fox makes without me in the debate," Trump told the news conference on Tuesday.

Trump took to social media on Tuesday afternoon, tweeting "Should I do the #GOPdebate?" with a Twitter poll and a link to an Instagram video of himself complaining about Kelly of Fox News.

She is expected to moderate the Thursday debate.

"Megyn Kelly's really biased against me," Trump said in the video. "She knows that, I know that, everybody knows that. Do you really think she can be fair at a debate?"

That same video garnered more than 190,000 views on Facebook in roughly an hour.

The poll, which was embedded in Trump's tweet, showed a near-split between respondents who felt he should attend the debate (52 per cent) and those who felt he should skip it (48 per cent). Overall, the poll had received more than 11,000 responses in the first two hours after it went live.

Fox News appeared unfazed by Trump's comments.

"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 spokesperson for Fox News said. "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."

Trump accused Kelly last August of asking him tougher questions than other candidates during a debate. His comments drew outcry, with some accusing the business tycoon of sexism.

Trump's bravado led some on social media to compare the Republican candidate to a pro wrestler psyching out his competition before a big match.

"Not a chance he or she won't show," author Harlan Coben tweeted on Tuesday, in reference to both Trump and Kelly. "This is straight out of pro wrestling hype handbook."

"I always think Donald Trump reminds me of a WWE character," tweeted Rob E\m/, "then I remember he actually was".

The WWE website lists Trump as a 2013 WWE Hall of Fame Inductee. WWE chairman and chief executive Vince McMahon is one of just 49 people Trump follows on Twitter.


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Source: Reuters



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