Trump says he may cancel the debate he is set to moderate
posted at 11:44 am on December 10, 2011 by Howard Portnoy
[ Elections ]
What if they gave a debate and nobody came? The painful truth of that prospect is prompting New York real estate mogul turned TV personality Donald Trump to consider bagging the GOP debate he is supposed to host on December 27.
At this juncture, only two candidates, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, have agreed to show up. The rest of the field has bowed out, and two of the remaining hopefuls—Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman—have dismissed the event as a circus.
According to the New York Daily News, the decision of Michele Bachmann to take a pass on the debate is the unkindest cut of all and has “damaged Trump’s reputation as a GOP kingmaker.” Trump is quoted as saying of the Minnesota congresswoman:
She came up to see me four times. She would call me and ask me for advice. She said if she wins, she would like to think about me for the vice presidency.
Trump, himself an erstwhile Republican presidential candidate, maintains that his decision to pull the plug will not be predicated on a low turnout for his debate but on possible plans to re-enter the race:
If the Republican, in my opinion, is not the right candidate [to defeat President Obama], I am unwilling to give up my right to run as an independent candidate.
Trump, who actually led in the polls at one point, claims he dropped out initially because of equal-time provisions that prohibited him from simultaneously running for president and hosting The Apprentice through the show’s May season finale. And here I would have thought that his spectacular mishandling of the birther issue and the attendant drop in his support were factors.
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I was kind of looking forward to this. The quality of the moderators in the other debates has been so incredibly low it’s unlikely Trump could do any worse. He might even introduce some badly needed entertainment value.
CorporatePiggy on December 10, 2011 at 12:30 PM
I hope Trump keeps the debate. Leno said he will fill in the panel with “Meatloaf, Amorosa, Bill & Gary Busey” Let the fun begin.
ducksinarow on December 10, 2011 at 1:55 PM
I’d really like to see Rick Santorum debate Newt Gingrich in a setting that is not moderated by hostile media leftists. I was looking forward to this debate, it would be a shame if Trump cancelled it. However, if he runs 3rd party, I will lose all respect for him because we need all the ABO votes to go GOP or we’ll get 4 more years of 0blamer – which I do not think this country can survive.
Zilla on December 10, 2011 at 8:38 PM