Donald Trump says he won't attend tomorrow's FOX News GOP debate...because of a woman, Megyn Kelly. Trump has had a problem with Megyn Kelly since the first GOP debate in which she asked him a question he was unable to answer.
After giving a few examples of Trump's previous behavior toward women, Megyn asked:
Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president and how will you answer the charge from Hillary Clinton, who is likely to be the Democratic nominee, that you are part of the war on women?
Five months later, Trump has still not answered that question.
Now that Trump has said that he will not attend Thursday night's FOX News debate Trump supporters are scrambling to provide cover, excuses, and somehow rationalize Trump's decision.
One of their favorite lines in defense of Trump right now is:
"Ronald Reagan skipped a debate, and he won in a landslide!"
I guess the reason WHY Ronald Reagan skipped that debate is of no importance to those who don't seem to care too much about facts. For those of you who do, check out this article from Reason.com. I'll include a partial quote from their piece below (emphasis is mine):
More importantly, and this ought to be obvious, the context of Reagan's decision to skip the 1980 debate is different than the context of Trump's decision. Reagan was not in a petty feud with the Des Moines Register at the time. His campaign manager simply believed that as the frontrunner, Reagan was above the debate. Only five of the nine Republicans vying for the nomination participated in the debate. That debate was the first Republican primary debate since 1948. It was not planned to be a televised debate—that came later. And after Reagan's loss in Iowa, he pivoted, ignoring his campaign manager's advice and deciding not to skip future debates.
Read the rest from Reason HERE.
Jimmy Carter also skipped a debate in 1980. From CNN:
The news in 1980 was Carter not participating in the first general election debate because of the presence of Independent candidate John Anderson, and Reagan out-performing Carter in the second debate (in which Anderson did not participate). In this debate, when Carter accused Reagan of planning to cut Medicare, Reagan (who had complained Carter was mis-representing his stands on a number of issues) responded with the now-famous line: "There you go again." A question Reagan posed in his closing statement also is remembered: "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?"
So, see, Jimmy Carter stayed away because he was too busy holding his tail between his knees after Reagan demolished him in the previous debate with some of the most famous lines ever spoken in all of presidential debate history and because of the participation of Independent candidate John Anderson. It had zero to do with who would be posing the questions to him in the debate.
Trump's behavior is more akin to that of Jimmy Carter than it is to that of Reagan.
Trump is staying away from tomorrow's debate because of all of the undeserved abuse he heaped on Megyn Kelly after the 1st debate. Not because he's "above" anything or anyone. Trump is about as unprofessional as they come and there's no way in hell he'd be able to form a coherent sentence after receiving another question from Megyn Kelly. (Not that he can do so with any regularity anyway, but that is in even the best of circumstances.)
Trump HAS a serious problem with women. Just because he says he doesn't doesn't make it true. I've made two videos that include many of his asinine comments about two such women, Pamela Geller and Megyn Kelly.
Pamela Geller:
Megyn Kelly:
Trump also SAYS he's a "Conservative"...but, that doesn't make that true, either. Donald has said many things over the course of his life. He's been on both sides of nearly every issue imaginable. Of course, all that matters to Trump's supporters is what he's saying TODAY. God knows, that can easily change tomorrow...and, given time, it will.
Trump needs to answer Megyn's first question to him from that 1st debate. I'd still like to know how he's going to answer Hillary Clinton's charge that he's part of the war on women. I already know the answer to the 1st part of her question: He certainly does not have the temperament of a man we should elect as president.
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