Cruz: Being 'Terrified by TV Host' Not So Presidential

He wants to debate Trump 'mano a mano'
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 27, 2016 5:04 AM CST
Cruz to Trump: Let's Go 'Mano-a-Mano'
Ted Cruz listens to a question at a campaign event in Iowa Tuesday night.   (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

After Donald Trump announced his intention to skip Thursday's GOP debate, a gleeful Ted Cruz offered to debate him somewhere where Fox host Megyn Kelly wouldn't frighten him. "We'll do 90 minutes, Lincoln-Douglas, mano a mano, Donald and me," Cruz told a Tuesday night rally in Iowa, per NBC News, calling Trump a "fragile soul." Cruz later told radio host Mark Levin that he would like Trump to "explain to the American people and to the people of Iowa how he is prepared to be commander in chief if he's terrified by a television host," warning that Vladimir Putin is a lot scarier than Kelly. The Hill reports that on his website, Cruz has started a petition asking "Ducking Donald" to debate him.

On Kelly's show Tuesday night, Michael Moore decided to talk about Trump instead of his new movie Where to Invade Next, Mediaite reports. He praised Kelly for causing a "crisis upstairs" and told her: "You have done something that Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Rubio, Cruz, none of them have been able to do, which is to essentially frighten him, make him run, shut him down." Fox, meanwhile, issued a statement saying Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski had threatened Kelly by telling a Fox exec that she was in for a "rough couple of days" if she moderated the debate, Politico reports. The network said it won't cave in to "terrorizations"—but Trump "is still welcome at Thursday night's debate and will be treated fairly." (Kelly says Trump once tried to "woo" her.)

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