Another debate brawl? Fox News, Kelly set for Trump rematch

You should see FOX's president panicking because they can no longer stand behind Rubio

Rubio is the Republican establishment candidate and now the complaint from the Left is that Fox is biased against the Republican establishment? I think you folks on the Left need to get your talking points straight.

Romney just gave an anti-Trump speech. Looks like the party war is officially public.

Good. The Republican establishment have merely been enablers for Obama and the Democrats' crony capitalism and trillions in debt. No Bush. No Clinton. And no more business as usual in DC. Maybe after Trump smashes the Republican establishment and Clinton and her aides are frog-marched to prison for endangering American national security by exposing national security secrets and endangering the lives intelligence sources people will take stock and get back to work rebuilding the country once again.

As for voter turnout, I'm not too worried. The Democratic primaries didn't have a lot of competition or drama.

Because the candidates are too old to cause any drama.

If Trump gets nominated I don't think it will be hard to get Democrats to turn out to vote against him.

Maybe, but by all accounts, you have this time around conservatives that haven't in over 16 years, new registered voters and more independents are flocking his way, the enthusiasm on the Right now is almost equal to what it was for the left 8 years ago.

It sounds like quite a few Republicans are going on record saying they will vote for Hillary if Trump is nominated.

And more libs for Trump

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/265330-some-dems-would-defect-for-trump-poll-shows

For those of you in the bubble, the latest reports show the Democrats are imploding and the GOP should sit back and change nothing.

True, but that has nothing to do with Trump supporters, the party can sit palm face if they want while Trump supporters chug right along.

Gingrich wa getting Anderson donation andRomey was helped by Trump. G lost soR begged Donation to A and lost to Obama. seems he want another nominatii on .

Romney just gave an anti-Trump speech. Looks like the party war is officially public.

As for voter turnout, I'm not too worried. The Democratic primaries didn't have a lot of competition or drama. If Trump gets nominated I don't think it will be hard to get Democrats to turn out to vote against him. It sounds like quite a few Republicans are going on record saying they will vote for Hillary if Trump is nominated.

For those of you in the bubble, the latest reports show the Democrats are imploding and the GOP should sit back and change nothing.

Before Megyn Kelly's headline-making smack-down of Donald Trump and his furious counter-punches, the Donald tried to win the support of the Fox News anchor. "He would send me press clippings about me that he would just sign 'Donald Trump.' And he called me from time to time to compliment a segment," Kelly told Vanity Fair in this month's cover story. "I didn't know why he was doing that. And then when he announced that he was running for president, it became more clear. "But I can't be wooed. I was never going to love him, and I was never going to hate him."

-Megyn Kelly has a serious conflict of interest in regard to any "debate" with Donald Trump and needs to step down.

Deflection, deflection and more deflection.

Well, you have Rupert Murdoch, owner of Fox News, who urged "earlier this week that Republicans should "close ranks to fight real enemy,

That would be Hillary and Sanders.

" suddenly shared a pre-debate tweet Wednesday saying Trump is "reaching out to make peace" with members of the party. "If he becomes inevitable party would be mad not to unify," Murdoch wrote.

It's not a crime. Phil Griffin did a similar thing as well a few years back. Nothing new.

So I guess he needs, er wants, Trump to attend, eh?? Good for ratings...and profits, huh?

In Television ratings is EVERYTHING and if you don't care, you won't be on TV and that doesn't apply to ONLY news.

Oh and about that Fox Debate...once again, the GOP Establishment is trying to pack the audience with select members only.

Like the way Hillary did a few months ago where at the town hall where she was at, the questions that were asked to her were by plants from her own campaign staff. That doesn't bother you or do you want to come down on the conservative side and show how bias you are?

Despite more than 21,000 ticket request from interested citizens, only 50 seats, that's right, 50 seats in the entire hall, have been reserved for "the public." The rest of the seats, 350 out of 400 made available (in a theater meant to have a 5000-seat capacity), go to...wait for it... "elected officials, state committee members and grassroots activists" hand-picked by the Party Bosses.

Actually, the turnout for Trump shows otherwise, I know the Dems want to juggle the numbers, but we keep forgetting that math is NEVER one of their strongest points. Trump is drawing in massive crowds almost equal to what Obama did in 2008 and the numbers keep going up.

So, when you hear a disproportionate amount of cheering for the Establishment's Teddy-bear of choice, Marco "Amnesty" Rubio, just remember who's doing the cheering. It's not the actual voters (who have overwhelmingly rejected Rubio and his Establishment ilk in this election) doing the clapping and screaming, but the manipulative PARTY MACHINE!!

Well both sides do this, it's called politics.

No wonder people are fed up! As if citizens needed more proof that party hacks on both sides are trying to micromanage this entire electoral process instead of allowing messy democracy to prevail, look no further!

This is very, very true.

This kind of debate makes the wingers' heads explode; they'd die to lap up any drivel FOX feeds them,

Again? Like what?

but they also no memory of previously denouncing Trump and stand behind him now. They don't know whom to cheer for!

They're not cheering for anyone and not that they would tell you, because it's not their job. The commentators can say what they want as well as the paid contributors, that's what they get paid to do.

You should see FOX's president panicking because they can no longer stand behind Rubio (after he embarrassed said president by mentioning the "gang of eight lunch" as well as Rubio's losses),

I think you misunderstand a business management decision with panicking. Ailes has more than enough money, the highest ratings, no need to panic. But Rubio is on life support, like Cruz and Carson and everyone knows it. Why these guys prolong the inevitable is beyond me.

but they've been dissing Trump for too long to beg for him back, which they soon will have no choice but to do. Trump has FOX by the short hairs.

Actually, they have done fine without him and even the debate where Trump refused to come on, they still beat the competition and still were able to pull in 12 million viewers, that ain't no chump change.

"a short-fingered vulgarian"

So Trump has short fingers, does he now? And would this be a bad thing?

"with zero chance of winning the general election. "

Zero chance? Hillary's like 3 points ahead of him in a national match-up.

He actually looks under duress...

He recently lost the GOP presidential nomination real bad. He's so unpopular in his own state that seven New Jersey newspapers (who knew the state had so many?) have called for his resignation. One went so far as to castigate itself for endorsing his previous gubernatorial bid. He's not yet legally out of the woods for a couple of scandals. He'll be out of a job soon. He's now in hock to a short-fingered vulgarian with zero chance of winning the general election. "Duress" would be too pleasant of a word.

"Christie's existential funk was best explained by someone at the WaPo: "His were the eyes of a man who has gazed into the abyss, and the abyss gazed back, and then he endorsed the abyss."

"He actually looks under duress to me when he's stood behind Trump "

Or, maybe Christie understands that Trump would have the best chance of all the rest of the Republican candidates to beat Hillary or Bernie.

Farmboy,

Grandpa lived in a more civilized political age. Back before the Republicans descended into madness, or at least had the common decency to hide it well. The Dems on the other hand had heated debate over important issues. The Republicans will be back to Goldwater's 1964 landslide defeat come November and they brought it all on themselves.

Laguna,

He actually looks under duress to me when he's stood behind Trump after Super Tuesday. I'm thinking there's more to this than we'll probably ever know.

Madverts, Christie's existential funk was best explained by someone at the WaPo: "His were the eyes of a man who has gazed into the abyss, and the abyss gazed back, and then he endorsed the abyss."

Anyone got insight with what's going on with Governor Christie?

At first it seemed pretty obvious his about face was pure tactics for personal gain. Last night he looked pained to be there. Maybe team Trump has something on him? Or was Christie simply thinking WTF have I done?

Compared to Trump et.al., the normally crazy Fox News people end up looking moderate and reasonable, and that is amazing.

And it's going to look really, really bad for us as a country.

But obama will finally be out! There is light at the end of the tunnel. Clinton / Trump, for better or worse.

I think tomorrow's debate will be an absolute circus. And it's going to look really, really bad for us as a country.

This kind of debate makes the wingers' heads explode; they'd die to lap up any drivel FOX feeds them, but they also no memory of previously denouncing Trump and stand behind him now. They don't know whom to cheer for!

You should see FOX's president panicking because they can no longer stand behind Rubio (after he embarrassed said president by mentioning the "gang of eight lunch" as well as Rubio's losses), but they've been dissing Trump for too long to beg for him back, which they soon will have no choice but to do. Trump has FOX by the short hairs.

Oh and about that Fox Debate...once again, the GOP Establishment is trying to pack the audience with select members only. Despite more than 21,000 ticket request from interested citizens, only 50 seats, that's right, 50 seats in the entire hall, have been reserved for "the public." The rest of the seats, 350 out of 400 made available (in a theater meant to have a 5000-seat capacity), go to...wait for it... "elected officials, state committee members and grassroots activists" hand-picked by the Party Bosses.

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2016/03/01/gop-debate-tickets-detroit-michigan/81165542/

So, when you hear a disproportionate amount of cheering for the Establishment's Teddy-bear of choice, Marco "Amnesty" Rubio, just remember who's doing the cheering. It's not the actual voters (who have overwhelmingly rejected Rubio and his Establishment ilk in this election) doing the clapping and screaming, but the manipulative PARTY MACHINE!!

No wonder people are fed up! As if citizens needed more proof that party hacks on both sides are trying to micromanage this entire electoral process instead of allowing messy democracy to prevail, look no further!

I vote that Drumpf changes his name again, to Donald Bollocks. Bollocks to the world!

Perhaps Megyn will behave herself this time and ask Trump substantive questions important to the country,

One thing I love... #MakeDonaldDrumpfAgain

The google extension is marvelous... haha Drumpf

Well, you have Rupert Murdoch, owner of Fox News, who urged "earlier this week that Republicans should "close ranks to fight real enemy," suddenly shared a pre-debate tweet Wednesday saying Trump is "reaching out to make peace" with members of the party. "If he becomes inevitable party would be mad not to unify," Murdoch wrote.

So I guess he needs, er wants, Trump to attend, eh?? Good for ratings...and profits, huh?

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/271543-murdoch-gop-would-be-mad-not-to-unify-around-trump-if-hes

Meanwhile, the Hillary-loving New York Times admits "turnout trouble" for Hillary Clinton's campaign. "Democratic turnout has fallen drastically since 2008, the last time the party had a contested primary, with roughly three million fewer Democrats voting in the 15 states that have held caucuses or primaries through Tuesday, according to unofficial election results tallied through Wednesday afternoon. It declined in almost every state, dropping by roughly 50 percent in Texas and 40 percent in Tennessee. In Arkansas, Alabama and Georgia, the number of Democrats voting decreased by between a quarter and a third."

"The falloff in Democratic primary turnout — which often reveals whether a candidate is exciting voters and attracting them to the polls — reached deep into some of the core groups of voters Mrs. Clinton must not only win in November, but turn out in large numbers. It stands in sharp contrast to the flood of energized new voters showing up at the polls to vote for Donald J. Trump in the Republican contest."

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/03/us/politics/hillary-clinton-voter-turnout.html?_r=0

Now, you might spin that the states in the examples above are Red states, but I'd suggest "almost every state" means Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, too, as this is in fact true, as I've demonstrated in earlier posts. Now tell me again: Who's got the momentum in this race?? (I think we all know the answer to that question, but I just love it when even liberals finally have to admit to reality!)

So, Fox News Channel is putting on a television show about a debate that never happens.

So the debate should be like the PBS debate that NO ONE watched or msnbc where the moderators openly hug the candidates? Keeping people's attention span and keeping the bias internally is not something Dems really care for, right?

That matches the GOP ShiaTea's plan to create a government of, by and for the People that serves the wealthy, prejudiced and not too bright.

Then what would you call Hillary's obsession with Wall St.?

When the American People go to vote in November will the wealthy, prejudiced and not too bright elect a bigot who has no interest in the job, just the sound of his own name?

You do know Trump has peeled about 20% of liberals because many are not that happy with a candidate that has a difficult time voting for a candidate that can't or won't admit to faults, lies and failures. You have a big segment that are young, ignorant, with almost zero expierence of how the world works, one-sided point of view brought on by public institionalized progressives that believe in a one party rule, the privileged, the lazy and the reverse racists, these are true and real faces of the Democratic Party.

I often question the integrity of reporting done by mainstream media, and especially question the reporting done by those outlets like FOX controlled by Rupert Murdoch,

Murdoch owns FOX he has nothing to do with the hiring, firing or editing and for the most part internal business decisions that happen at the network. It's done by Roger Ailes and most of the head commentators like Megyn, Sean or Bill O'Reilly do most of their own editing and have free editorial control. Ailes doesn't need to input really one hold their hands, that's why they get big bucks doing what they are doing and why the majority of Americans and increasing more tend to watch them.

so if this comes off I'm going to assume that the 'art of the deal'-meister Drumpf has already helped script the show.

How? That's impossible and nonesense. The other networks want to get as much of Trump as they can, if they could.

Exactly. It's not a debate, it's a program length commercial for Trump sponsored by Rupert Murdoch

And your proof of that is.....

Megyn Kelly is a good tele-prompt reader -and that is about it.

If anyone, anyone that needs a TelePrompTer, it's Al Sharpton. In almost 30 years, I have never seen a person screw up so much on it. But who ever said he's an educated man?

Fox News needs the ratings and without Donald Trump they get maybe 1/2 the viewers and many feel even that number is high.

Even if that were true, that'd still be at the top spot, whether Trump is on or not they have never had a problem with ratings.

Fox News, MSNBC et al have been trying to "stump the Trump" but have completely gotten steam-rolled instead.

They haven't been trying to stop Trump, no one is that stupid, they know that wouldn't good to interject their personal opinion, unless during the PrineTime lineup heading in towards the opinion shows where from The Five and the other shows are opinionated shows where they get paid to opine. Different from the hard news where the anchors don't have that right to really comment in detail about their personal opinions.

Nothing sticks to the Teflon Don and the media is very upset about that and the most of the general public has turned off controlled TV media for some time (viewership continues to go down).

Especially the liberal media are goin bat (bleep) crazy about it.

Since the banker bailout (bail-in) where the private Federal Reserve gave all these big media entities 100's of millions they and their programming have continually gotten worse.

If they would come out with decent programming that people could watch instead of the media circus the other networks are having, it's no wonder people are tuning out. At least the days of obnoxious garrulous backbiting talk of the idiots like Keith Olbermann are behind us.

Confusing Fox News with journalism

I don't even think liberals know what journalism is.

You know, "debate brawl" is fine if you're discussing professional wrestling, but running for the highest office in the land? Not so much.

Why not? "debate brawl" works just fine in this political climate. Last year, during some speech at a university in Wisconsin, President Obama himself said it would be, "The Hunger Games."

But now, Trump might be the last guy standing . . . .& now all the Clinton / Sanders supporters are suddenly pissed off. Take ur medicine.

I am tired of the reporters trying to be in the headlines, they are supposed to report news not make it

Confusing Fox News with journalism?

New York magazine is running an article with three sources inside Fox News saying that Roger Ailes has already given up on Marco Rubio. Interesting details about Rubio trying to lobby Ailes on immigration at a secret dinner etc. A more appropriate slogan for their secretive shenanigans would be 'We hide and decide everything in advance for you, our gullible viewers.'

Megyn Kelly is a good tele-prompt reader -and that is about it. Fox News needs the ratings and without Donald Trump they get maybe 1/2 the viewers and many feel even that number is high. Fox News, MSNBC et al have been trying to "stump the Trump" but have completely gotten steam-rolled instead. Nothing sticks to the Teflon Don and the media is very upset about that and the most of the general public has turned off controlled TV media for some time (viewership continues to go down).

Since the banker bailout (bail-in) where the private Federal Reserve gave all these big media entities 100's of millions they and their programming have continually gotten worse.

How Trump responds will be dictated by his political advisors. His past friction with Kelly created much controversy but helped his poll numbers. Now he's a frontrunner and at some point he has to move to the center for the general election, so he might just tone down his antics. (NOT a supporter by the way, just an observation)

I am tired of the reporters trying to be in the headlines, they are supposed to report news not make it

I agree with this sentiment. Unfortunately television journalism has devolved into a popularity contest designed to boost ratings rather inform the public. Throw in a buffoon like Trump and you end up with gotcha questions, bombast, and ginned up controversy.

I haven't been able to sit through more than 30 minutes of any of the debates on either side of the aisle. It used to be possible to make a choice between the lesser of two evils. The debates have made it clear that a Trump vs. Clinton contest is a choice that no citizen should be forced to make.

So, Fox News Channel is putting on a television show about a debate that never happens. - comment

"question the integrity of reporting done by mainstream media, and especially question the reporting done by those outlets like FOX controlled by Rupert Murdoch" - comment

Exactly. It's not a debate, it's a program length commercial for Trump sponsored by Rupert Murdoch.

Why do the mods plan to hold back on the tough questions? This is not like Sean Penn politely interviewing El Chapo in his jungle hideout, with armed guards on hair trigger alert patrolling the perimeter. Wait, this is that kind of journalism too?

But the journalist and fellow moderators say they are not preparing to stoke the fire with questions about his headline-grabbing battles with the network.

I often question the integrity of reporting done by mainstream media, and especially question the reporting done by those outlets like FOX controlled by Rupert Murdoch, so if this comes off I'm going to assume that the 'art of the deal'-meister Drumpf has already helped script the show.

I am tired of the reporters trying to be in the headlines, they are supposed to report news not make it

Donald Trump doesn't need a Fox News. As vast numbers of people turn out to hear and support him the last thing that he needs to do is waste time with some talking head......

Given that Republicans have run smear campaigns for 50 years, why should 2016 be any different?

I doubt very seriously it will happen, but I hope she tears him a new you-know-what again ! Go Megyn !

The moderators said they do not plan to mention Trump’s comments about Kelly, his complaints about unfair treatment by the cable news network or his absence from Fox’s January debate. - article

So, Fox News Channel is putting on a television show about a debate that never happens. That matches the GOP ShiaTea's plan to create a government of, by and for the People that serves the wealthy, prejudiced and not too bright.

The only question left to ask?

When the American People go to vote in November will the wealthy, prejudiced and not too bright elect a bigot who has no interest in the job, just the sound of his own name?