Donald Trump entered “The No Spin Zone” to set the record straight on his refusal to attend Fox News’ Republican debate on Thursday.
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The Republican front-runner told host Bill O’Reilly that a press release by the network on Tuesday was so “childish” that it warranted his exit from the debate. Trump said his actions were a response to “the stupidity of Fox and what they did.”
On Tuesday Fox responded to concerns over debate moderator Megyn Kelly’s objectivity by releasing a statement saying, “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 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.”
O’Reilly said Trump should channel his Christian faith and “forgive” Kelly for any unfair questions she may have asked during the network’s first Republican debate over the summer.
Trump countered that instead of “turning the other cheek” it was sometimes necessary to apply an “eye for an eye” philosophy.
“I don’t like being taken advantage of. … I don’t like that,” said Trump.
“You have in this debate format the upper hand – you have sixty seconds off the top to tell the moderator, ‘You’re a pinhead, you’re off the mark and here’s what I want to say,'” said O’Reilly. “By walking away from it, you lose the opportunity to persuade people you are a strong leader.”
The interview ended with O’Reilly pleading for the billionaire to reconsider his position.
“Will you just consider? Say, ‘Look, I might come back.’ Forgive. Go forward. Answer the questions. Look out for the folks. I just want you to consider it.”
“Even though you and I had an agreement that you wouldn’t ask me that, which we did, I will therefore forget that you asked me that,” replied Trump.
The host laughed and acknowledged that he did renege on his promise.
“You’re right. You’re absolutely an honest man,” said O’Reilly.
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In the follow-up segment with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, O’Reilly said Fox’s press release was meant to be “satirical” rather than “foolish.”
“I think [Trump’s] excuse is laughable,” said Gingrich. “I think his excuses make no sense.”
Fox’s Greta Van Susteren polled her “Gretawire” viewers on Tuesday to see who would tune into the upcoming debate without Trump. The results, although unscientific, were overwhelming: 85.9 percent (14,209) of respondents said they would not watch the debate compared to 14.1 percent (2,333) who would.
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