SALT LAKE CITY, (UPI) — Fox News has canceled Monday’s planned Republican presidential debate in Utah after front-runner Donald Trump said he would not attend, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich followed suit.
The debate would have been the 15th such affair for the GOP and their third in as many weeks. After Thursday’s Republican debate in Florida, Trump said he was likely to skip the next one on the calendar, saying there had been “enough debates.”
The Florida debate was drastically different in tone and substance from previous meetings. Prior affairs had seen candidates frequently shouting insults and accusations, but Sunday’s debate was far less demonstrative and far more centered on policy than personal attacks.
After Trump backed out of the debate, a spokesman for Kasich said his candidate would not attend without Trump. That left just Sen. Ted Cruz on the guest list and prompted Fox News to cancel their reservation for the convention center where the event was to be held, a local Fox affiliate reported Wednesday.
Speaking Wednesday morning on Fox and Friends, Trump said he’d had enough of debating his opponents.
“I think we’ve had enough debates. We’ve had 11 or 12 debates. … How many times can the same people ask you the same question?” he said.
Trump said he plans to make a speech to the American Israel Political Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, instead.
