Fox News will host a town hall featuring former President Donald Trump on January 10, counter-programming to CNN‘s Republican debate from Iowa that same evening.
Trump, the GOP front runner, has skipped all the debates so far, so it’s no surprise that he will not participate in the CNN event. Given the criteria, the CNN debate at Drake University is likely to feature his two main rivals, former UN ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Fox News’ town hall, scheduled to start at 9 p.m. ET, the same time as the CNN event, will also take place in Des Moines. Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum will co-moderate the event, the first time they have jointly sat with Trump since May 2020. Baier also interviewed Trump in June.
To qualify for the CNN debate candidates “must receive at least 10% in three separate national and/or Iowa polls of Republican caucusgoers or primary voters” that meet the news outlet’s standards for reporting., according to the network. One of the polls must be an “approved CNN poll of likely Iowa Republican caucusgoers.”
That criteria likely means that former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Vivek Ramaswamy, who have participated in all four previous debates, won’t make it to this one. Ramaswamy blasted CNN in a X/Twitter post on Tuesday, and said that he would be doing a live audience show with Tim Pool that evening.
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