Trump to skip panel hosted by Megyn Kelly
Megyn Kelly will host a two-hour "voters summit" broadcast special on Wednesday, but Donald J. Trump won't be joining her. Trump, the leading Republican candidate, declined to participate in the panel, scheduled for the night before the next Republican debate, citing the last-minute invitation and prior commitments. "The campaign has a previous engagement in Virginia and then New York, which could not be rescheduled," Hope Hicks, a spokeswoman for the campaign, said in a statement. "Given this was just proposed at the last minute it was not possible to change our plans in order to attend. Mr. Trump looks forward to participating in the next Fox News debate." In order to quell any rumors that Trump's declining was because of lingering animosity — he has harshly criticized her in the past — Kelly took to Twitter on Monday night. "Trump's team is correct — we only scheduled this last-minute," she wrote on Twitter. "They were very polite & we're happy we'll see him in MI." The prime-time special, "The Kelly File: Face to Face With Candidates," will be broadcast from Houston, the site of the debate on Thursday. It will feature one-on-one interviews with the other Republican candidates. Ben Carson and Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida will do the interviews live. Gov. John Kasich of Ohio will join by satellite while his campaign is in New Orleans. — Nick Corasaniti
In his final rally on Monday before the Nevada caucuses, Donald J. Trump said he wanted to punch a protester, who had been ejected from the event, in the face.
On the eve of what could be Trump’s third consecutive victory among a fractured Republican presidential field, the protester — the third one to interrupt him at the event and who Trump said had thrown punches at security guards — really drew the candidate’s ire. As the man was being escorted away, Trump repeatedly told the crowd that he wished for the “old days,” adding, “You know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this? They’d be carried out on a stretcher.”
“I’d like to punch him in the face, I’ll tell ya,” Trump added.
Trump has faced criticism over his response to protesters before. After a Black Lives Matter demonstrator was pushed to the ground at one of his events in November, Trump said in an interview after the episode that “maybe he should have been roughed up,” before later pulling back from his comments.
But on Monday night, he held nothing back, and the crowd of thousands met every one of his lines with whooping cheers.
Addressing another protester, a man holding a sign that read, “Veterans to Trump: End Hate Speech Against Muslims,” Trump repeatedly said, “Get him the hell out,” as the crowd booed the man’s exit.
But Trump didn’t limit his rough talk to the protesters. Referring to the Iranians who took 10 Navy sailors hostage in January, Trump said the leader of the Iranians was a “rough guy with a rough mouth. I’d like to smack the hell out of him.”
He also repeatedly belittled Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. soldier who was vilified by some as a deserter after his release by the Taliban in a prisoner swap in 2014. “I think they slapped him around pretty good,” Trump said, referring to the soldier’s time in captivity.
Pointing to his many victories in the presidential race, Trump said that he was winning the support of evangelicals over his rival Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas because Cruz was a “liar” and evangelical voters “don’t like liars.”
“This guy is sick,” Trump said of Cruz. “There’s something wrong with this guy.”
He also made sure to remind his supporters about the importance of “voting” — he said he hated the word “caucusing” — and told them that they should go into Tuesday night expecting a tie, to help energize them.
But he also issued a warning to them: “Don’t make me have a miserable evening.”
Trump, leading in the number of delegates and states won in the nominating contest, also turned his attention to the general election, saying he would be aggressive against Hillary Clinton and repeatedly raising the specter of her email scandal.
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