DETROIT, Michigan (PNN) - February 5, 2016 - Donald Trump says he will attend the next Fox News debate on March 3, even with Megyn Kelly co-moderating, a week after skipping the network's debate in Iowa to hold his own event.
“No, I’ll be there. I have no objection to being there, and that had nothing to do with Megyn Kelly," the Republican candidate said, addressing his upcoming attendance at the event in Detroit.
As Trump has remarked repeatedly throughout the course of the last week, the impetus for his boycott came from a mocking Fox News release that rubbed him the wrong way.
"The fact that I went out of the last one had to do with a memo that was sent out by Fox that was a little bit taunting, and I said it was inappropriate," he said. "What happened is because I didn’t do it, I raised $6 million for the vets. So I wouldn’t have changed places. I mean, I did the right thing.”
Trump's failure to show at the Iowa debate may have hurt his chances in Monday's caucuses, Ted Cruz's pollster wrote Tuesday in assessing his candidate's victory.
"The last week saw Trump skip the final debate, a move that cost him substantially with traditional caucus goers," wrote Bryon Allen, a partner at Wilson Perkins Allen Opinion Research. "It also saw the first real opportunity for voters to see the non-Trump candidates debate the issues rather than participating in a circus.
Joel Benenson, Hillary Clinton's top pollster, castigated pundits on Wednesday for hailing Trump's decision to skip the debate as a "genius move," noting the Manhattan businessman's poor performance among the 45% of caucus-goers who had made up their minds in the final days.
