Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly says Donald Trump may regret skipping her network’s GOP presidential debate.
“It would probably be a bad decision to not show up at the Fox News debate,” she told Extra.
{mosads}“I think this is the last chance they have before voting begins and he’s still within two points of Ted Cruz,” Kelly said, referencing Iowa’s early-voting caucuses next Monday.
“It’s a tight race out there, but obviously it’s up to Mr. Trump. Whether he’s there or not there, the show will go on.”
She then rejected the party front-runner’s frequent claims that she treats him unfairly during her reporting.
“Of course there is no bias there whatsoever,” said Kelly, who is moderating Thursday evening’s contest in Des Moines.
“I neither like nor dislike him,” she added. “I don’t really spend a lot of time thinking about him.
“I don’t have any feelings about [the presidential candidates]. I study these guys as subjects. They are subjects for me to study and help the audience to get to know.”
Kelly added that Trump enjoys the media spotlight too much to miss the GOP’s seventh presidential contest.
“I will be surprised if he doesn’t show up,” she said. “Donald Trump is a showman [and] he’s very good at generating interest.
“Perhaps this is an effort to generate interest in our debate. If it is, that is great — maybe we will have more eyeballs. If he doesn’t show up, maybe we will have fewer eyeballs, but either way it is going to be OK.”
Trump vowed late Tuesday that he viewers should expect his absence during Fox News’s upcoming broadcast. The outspoken billionaire has pledged he is conducting an event raising funds for military veterans via the Wounded Warriors project instead.
Trump resents Kelly’s questioning of him during their first debate encounter last August. Kelly confronted the businessman over his past remarks toward woman during the contest in Cleveland.