By Jada Lister

Donald Trump did not participate in the Fox News Debate on January 28.

Donald Trump did not participate in the Fox News Debate on January 28. Instead, the front-runner for the Republican party hosted a “special event to benefit veterans organizations” at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. This was after several days of  “will he or won’t he” debate speculation. Trump chose to host a different event due to his bitter ongoing feud with Fox’s Megyn Kelly, one of the three moderators for the GOP debate. He has complained for months that her news coverage is biased.

“I’m not a fan of Megyn Kelly. I think she’s a third-rate reporter. I think she, frankly, is not good at what she does. And I think they could do a lot better than Megyn Kelly,” Trump said at a  press conference on Tuesday leading up to the debate.

Their feud began at the first Fox-hosted event back in August when Kelly questioned Trump on the disparaging comments he’d made about women’s looks.

Following his charity event Trump said that he had no regrets about missing the GOP debate. “We gave a tremendous performance with lots of different people for the veterans. And we raised…six million dollars. And we had less than a day to do it…And on top of that, we got great coverage. Because the debate was not as exciting as what we did.”

Trump did say that his decision to skip the last Iowa Caucuses may have led to his second place finish, though he said he would make the same decision again, again pointing out the $6 million he raised for veterans’ charities. The funds raised will be distributed among 22 organizations that support veteran causes.

However,Trump’s actions are not viewed by everyone as genuine. “I think he did it because of the attention it would get him. I think much of what he does is for attention not his actual political beliefs or ideologies. Because I feel he provokes people so much of the time, it is hard for me to take anything he says or does seriously,” said Lisa Lee, co-teacher of the GT program here at WRHS.

Fox News Channel announced that Megyn Kelly will be returning as one of three moderators for the final Republican presidential primary next month. The debate, which will be in Detroit this time, if Trump confirms it, will see Kelly and Trump on the same stage again.

Trump, who was able to “behave” at the February 6 debate caused an uproar with his vulgar language Monday night which left much to be desired . Given this turn of events, it will be interesting to see if Trump is able to put aside the feud for the final debate or if he will choose to host another charity event instead.