Last week, there was a Republican primary debate in Madison, Wisconsin, moderated by Fox News.
At that time, he mentioned that he probably wouldn’t participate in any of the GOP debates. However, he is now hinting that he might have reconsidered.
“Do you anticipate at some point jumping into the debates?” Trump was asked during the Todd Starnes’ radio show, the Washington Examiner reported.
“I might. I mean, you know, it’s possible. I liked debating. I guess I won because of the debates,” he said. “You know, they’ve been very good to me. So I might. But at this moment, I’m leading by so much that it seems to be foolish to do it.”
The outlet noted further:
Earlier this month, a source familiar with Trump’s thinking told NBC News that his decision announcing he wouldn’t participate in the first debate applies to only the first two debates, allowing him a chance to attend other debates if he changed his mind.
Trump’s change in thinking also comes after an Emerson College poll released on Monday showed Trump dropped six percentage points after skipping the debate. A predebate poll showed Trump garnering 56% of Republican support, but in the wake of the debate, his support decreased to 50%.
Trump was also critical of Fox News after Starnes asked, “Mr. President, what the heck is going on at Fox News?” — in reference to “Fox & Friends” morning co-host Steve Doocy noting Trump’s drop in the polls after skipping the debate.
“Well, he’s incorrect because most of the polls, and I’m way ahead in Emerson, too, but most of the polls literally have me going up a lot since the debate, if you can call it that,” Trump said. “They’ll pick one poll where if you go down a little bit, they’ll use that one poll, but they won’t use 15 polls or a lot of the polls where you go up. But we’ve gone up very substantially, and we’ve gone up in just about every state.”
