Posted on 01/28/2016 10:58:41 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum will attend Donald Trump's pro-veterans event on Thursday at the same time as Fox News's prime-time presidential debate.
Spokesmen for both candidates confirmed to The Hill that the Republican presidential will still participate in Thursday's undercard GOP debate, but will head to the Trump event after.
The undercard debate begins at 7 p.m. Eastern, two hours before Trump's event is slated to start three miles away. That gives candidates who failed to reach the main stage the freedom to participate, while anyone slated for the main stage would have to skip the debate altogether to attend.
Huckabee said that he didn't speak with Trump directly about the plans, but that his staff had expressed interest in conversation with the Trump campaign. He added that he doesn't believe the decision to join Trump at the event sends a negative message to those candidates taking part in the main-stage debate.
"It's to honor the troops, it's not an endorsement of Donald Trump's candidacy. I'm still running for president, we've got the caucuses Monday night, but I'm delighted to join with Donald Trump in an effort to salute the veterans," Huckabee said Thursday on CNN's "Wolf."
"I'm not invited to the main stage, I would have loved to have been on that stage ... if they aren't sitting out in the audience watching me, I don't feel any compulsion that I have to be there for that debate.
Trump's campaign scheduled the event after he decided to pull out of Fox News's debate because the network issued a strongly worded statement in response to his calls to remove Megyn Kelly as a moderator.
His campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, has said the event will raise funds for veterans organizations, but the campaign has not elaborated which ones will benefit.
Trump tweeted
Thursday morning that two campaigns had reached out with interest in joining his event, but he did not identify the candidates.
His decision to skip the debate has prompted criticism from his GOP rivals.
Ted Cruz, his closest challenger in recent polls, challenged him to a one-on-one debate this Saturday, and two Cruz-aligned super-PACs promised to donate $1.5 million to veterans organizations if Trump agreed.
The decision by both candidates to stand by Trump despite criticism from other candidates could be seen by supporters as a signal to support Trump.
Both Huckabee, the 2008 Iowa caucus winner, and Santorum, the 2012 caucus winner, have long histories with the state's evangelical population.
But they have seen those voters flee him in droves, mostly to Trump and Cruz, and both lag behind the majority of the field in fundraising.
While other rivals framed Trump's decision as fear to defend his record, Huckabee lauded Trump for manipulating the media during an interview this week on Fox's "Hannity" and jokingly asked
to take his spot on the main debate stage.
During the CNN interview, Huckabee said Trump would be on his vice presidential shortlist.
Huckabee also didn't argue with the assertion that he'd be more comfortable with Trump as the nominee than Cruz, and took the opportunity to criticize Cruz for cozying up to hedge-fund billionaires and for moderating his stances depending on the audience.
Come to think of it I've never hear Rubio say anything about Trump either.
How would you classify Ben Sasse?
Huck <3 Trump
So what’s your point?
Well don’t go away mad. :-)
Two, shameless, opportunists.
If they had any honor, they, too, would skip the FOX event. Faced with gotcha questioning, and grilling by illegal aliens, they should have the courage to walk off, as well.
They’re using Trumps drawing power for unwarranted exposure and credit for “supporting vets”.
Just stay at the FOX event, Trumps event is not your show.
Yea, I would think dumping on Trump repeatedly would get old fast and have an opposite effect. If they are smart, they stick with their visions
I want to hear why I should vote for Cruz/Rubio, etc rather than why I shouldn't vote for the other guy.
Eight hours from now, we will know, conclusively, the value of your prediction.
Fox <3 Trump
Trump <3 Fox
Why else would Trump have made 132 separate appearances on Fox this campaign season?
But THIS is the last straw!
What THIS is, I'm not sure.
And if we can assume Santorum and Huckabee's support goes to Trump there's another 3-4% in Trump's corner.
Pretty much ;-)
I've watched Cruz since he came on the national scene. And I trust groups like Heritage and how they measure a candidates bona fides. As someone said, like all of us his feet are made of clay but I've decided he's definitely worth my vote.
Are you going on the record that you believe Trump?
” I don’t think candidates should be allowed to do it without getting money from outside sources,”
So, you want all candidates to be bought and paid for before getting into office. Sadly, only the honest ones will stay bought, though, for varying definitions of the word “honest.”
fwiw, Santorum and Huckabee have been consistent in not attacking Trump. I could see Huckabee as an excellent Press Secretary, and Santorum with a cabinet post.
Yes.
I much figured this since I know where Drake U. is, and have taken a tour of Des Moines. The gaggle of reporters can easily run or walk over the Trump main event. Haha...
I'm voting Trump or Cruz.
I prefer an outsider first as we've gone down the road of lawyer/politician repeatedly and it's done nothing for us.
Cannot stand Huckabee, liked Santorum until he started attacking Cruz. Still like him but he lost sincerity points for being a political opportunist.
I am on the record that Trump will be a no-show at the FoxNews debate tonight.
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