A spokesman for the Republican National Committee said Thursday they’ll continue to hold out hope that GOP front-runner Donald Trump ends up participating in Thursday evening’s presidential debate in Iowa.
“We’d love him there; we’d love all of the candidates there,” RNC spokesman Sean Spicer said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “The same way we asked Senator [Rand] Paul to join the last debate, we’re going to continue to hope that he changes his mind.”
“We can make the accommodations up to pretty close to go time,” Mr. Spicer said. “But this is an opportunity for all these candidates to show up to give the American people the opportunity [to] hear them right before, especially the Iowa caucuses.”
Mr. Trump had threatened not to participate in the debate if Fox News host Megyn Kelly was a moderator, and has said a tongue-in-cheek statement from the network directed at him as he weighed his decision was the final straw. He’s planning to hold an event to benefit veterans at Drake University at the same time as the 9 p.m. (ET) debate.
A Fox spokesperson said Mr. Trump is still welcome at the debate, but that he can’t dictate the moderators or the questions.
Mr. Paul of Kentucky, who will be on the main stage Thursday, opted to skip the last undercard debate after failing to qualify for the main one.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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