On MSNBC’s Morning Joe Wednesday, Donald Trump‘s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said he can’t imagine any way the Republican presidential frontrunner would participate in tomorrow night’s GOP debate on Fox News.
“I just don’t see in any way where Fox is going to have a successful debate now, when you got the clear GOP frontrunner who has decided to walk away from this debate because he can’t be treated fairly at the debate stage,” Lewandowski said.
The interview comes after tensions between the campaign and Fox escalated Tuesday evening, with a Fox News spokesperson accusing Lewandowski of threatening host and debate moderator Megyn Kelly.
Responding this morning, Lewandowski said Fox “wants to make news” with “personal attacks,” and predicted ratings would suffer without Trump on the stage. “I think they may have a 1 or 2 million person debate.”
Asked specifically “What is it about Megyn Kelly that rattles Donald Trump’s cage unlike anybody else?” Lewandowski insisted “this has nothing to do with Megyn Kelly. What this is about is Fox News, which is making tens of millions of dollars off the debate… it’s Roger Ailes, it’s Fox News, they think they can mess with Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump doesn’t play games.”
And yet, Trump himself seems clearly focused on Ms. Kelly, sending this message to his Twitter followers early this morning:
I refuse to call Megyn Kelly a bimbo, because that would not be politically correct. Instead I will only call her a lightweight reporter!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 27, 2016