Ted Cruz Challenges Donald Trump To A One-On-One Debate

So much drama has unfolded over the course of the last 24 hours. So. Much. Drama.

Last night, Donald Trump’s campaign confirmed that he will be skipping Thursday night’s GOP debate. He originally toyed with the idea, because he didn’t want to deal with that evil “bimbo” Megyn Kelly. Like, she asked him a totally unfair question during the first debate, and it was so mean, you guys! (I’m being sarcastic.)

But the tipping point came after a network spokesperson released this statement:

“We learned from a secret back channel that the Ayatollah and Putin both intend to treat Donald Trump unfairly when they meet with him if he becomes president — a nefarious source tells us that Trump has his own secret plan to replace the Cabinet with his Twitter followers to see if he should even go to those meetings.”

Hehe.

You can read Trump’s official statement here, and Fox’s response here.

I don’t think this will hurt Trump’s standing with his hardcore supporters, but I do wonder how the Iowa voters will take it. Undoubtedly, Trump’s move will gain him a ton of press coverage– probably more than if he participated in the debate. But I think his move places our other top tier candidates– Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio– in a great position. If they play their cards right, they can use Trump’s little temper tantrum to their own advantage. Cruz already is.

Cruz is challenging “Ducking Donald” to a one-on-one debate.

Check out duckingdonald.com if you don’t believe me.

“If Donald is afraid of Megyn Kelly, I would like to invite him on your show to participate in a one-on-one debate between me and Donald, mano y mano,” Cruz said during an interview on “The Mark Levin Show.”

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“And the fact that Donald is now afraid to appear on the debate stage, that he doesn’t want his record questioned, I think that reflects a lack of respect for the men and women of Iowa, that he’s unwilling to go to Des Moines and be questioned,” Cruz added.

I especially love what Cruz had to say about facing the American people in debate forums. This isn’t a game. It’s a job interview. And in the real world, if you don’t show up to the interview, you usually don’t get the job.

“This is a job interview, you need to be willing to answer the questions of the American people, and if Donald is afraid to defend his record, that speaks volumes,” Cruz said. “And if he thinks Megyn Kelly is so scary, what exactly does he think he’d do with Vladimir Putin? I promise you Putin is a lot scarier than Megyn Kelly.”

Darn straight.

I know I say this a lot, but Cruz is right. Trump needs to explain “how he is prepared to be commander-in-chief if he’s terrified of a television host.”