In separate interviews Wednesday, GOP front-runner Donald Trump said he would skip a Republican presidential debate that was scheduled to take place on Monday, and warned that there could be riots if a brokered convention in July denies him the nomination.
The Donald said during a telephone interview with Fox and Friends that he would be giving a “major speech” to a “very important group of people” Monday night and thus would be unable to make the Fox debate, which has since been canceled. Via Mediaite:
“Nobody told me about debates. As you saw I thought the last debate on CNN was the last debate,” Trump said on Wednesday morning. “I’m doing a major speech in front of a very important group of people that night,” Trump said, adding that it had been “scheduled a while ago.”
“I think it’s enough,” he added, about the dozen debates the Republican candidates have participated in so far.
This comes after Trump tore into Fox News’ Megyn Kelly last night on Twitter, saying he “can’t stand her” and that she’s “crazy,” “ridiculous,” and “unwatchable.”
The bombastic billionaire also raised eyebrows on CNN this morning with his inflammatory comments about what he says would happen at the convention in July should he fail to win at least 1,237 delegates and is denied the nomination.
“I think we’ll win before getting to the convention,” he declared. “But I can tell you, if we didn’t and if we’re 20 votes short or if we’re 100 short and we’re at 1,100 and somebody else is at 500 or 400 ’cause we’re way ahead of everybody, I don’t think you can say that we don’t get it automatically.” Trump added ominously, “I think you’d have riots. I think you’d have riots. I’m representing a tremendous many, many millions of people.” He went on to say, “I wouldn’t lead it, but I think bad things would happen.”
Whether this was a veiled threat or simply another example of Trump’s bluster getting in the way of good sense, the blogger Ace of Spades makes a great point at AoSHQ:
If Obama said something like this — if he said, “If my Supreme Court nominee isn’t given an up or down vote, I think we’d have riots; I wouldn’t lead it, but I think bad things would happen; that would disenfranchise my voters” — what would you say about that?
Would you nod along and say “You tell ’em, Obama. You rattle that saber about the mob uprisings you could stir.”
Or would you say: “Why does this shady interloper believe he has the right to threaten me?”
Something to ponder as this unpredictable election season continues.
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