Donald Trump Was For Megyn Kelly Before He Was Against Her

The final Republican presidential debate before the first votes are (mercifully) cast in this year’s election is Thursday night at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines.

Fox News has the coverage, with the so-called “undercard” debate starting at 7 p.m. ET and the main event kicking off at 9.

We wish we could tell you that the stories leading the debate have been fierce, intellectual discussions of important issues facing the American people.

But we would be very, very, wrong.

Here’s what you need to know.

Donald Trump will be MIA

Yes, noted Twitter user Donald Trump has said he won’t attend the debate, because it will be moderated by his best friend Megyn Kelly, who grilled him for sexist comments during the first GOP debate way back in August. (Simpler times, right?)

Trump demanded that Kelly be removed from the debate’s moderation panel, and when Fox didn’t cave, he jumped ship.

Who is Megyn Kelly anyway?

Kelly was born in Syracuse, grew up in Albany, did her undergrad at Syracuse University and went to Albany Law School. Kelly worked as an attorney in Chicago for nine years before taking a job with the ABC affiliate in Washington.

At Fox News, Kelly has become one of the top personalities for the network’s political coverage.

The Donald didn’t always despise her.

In fact, during the 2012 election cycle, Trump told her, “We’re not seeing a lot of courage” after Republican candidates refused to participate in a debate he wanted to moderate.

“Do you really think you’re a better moderator than I am?” Kelly asked him in an interview at the time.

“No. I could never beat you,” he said. “That wouldn’t even be close. That would be no contest.”

So sweet!

What went wrong?

Kelly battered Trump at the first GOP debate in Cleveland with tough questions like, “When did you actually become a Republican?”

She rattled off a laundry list of words Trump has called women on Twitter — “fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals” — and asked if that’s the temperament of a man who should be president. Trump responded, thoughtfully and carefully, by retweeting his rabid followers who called Kelly, among other things, a “bimbo.”

Trump took a Twitter poll Tuesday asking his followers if he should participate in the debate, which would be his first time facing Kelly since that night in Cleveland.

And the man who frequently touts his ability to stand up to ruthless dictators like Vladimir Putin apparently has had the bejeezus scared out of him by an attorney from Syracuse.

The network seems to be having fun with it, releasing the following statement:

“We learned from a secret back channel that the Ayatollah and Putin both intend to treat Donald Trump unfairly when they meet with him if he becomes president — a nefarious source tells us that Trump has his own secret plan to replace the Cabinet with his Twitter followers to see if he should even go to those meetings.”

In another statement, Fox told Trump he’s still welcome at the debate, but, “Bring your own guts. We’ll take care of the questions.”

The others

Right, the actual debate.

As it stands, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz would be the leading candidate on the debate stage Thursday, according to a RealClearPolitics average of national polls.

Cruz is polling nearly 20 points behind Trump in national polls but only trails him by fewer than six in Iowa.

Behind Cruz, the other 18 or so candidates will try to yell the loudest to earn the honor of being the person the GOP’s leaders actually want to elect.

Image by Gage Skidmore, via Flickr