The Fox News town hall event with former President Donald Trump garnered significantly more views than the final GOP primary debate between former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
The Nielsen company reported this week that 4.3 million people watched Trump’s event air on Fox News Wednesday night, compared to only 2.6 million who tuned into CNN to watch the debate between Haley and DeSantis.
Both of the events were held in Des Moines, Iowa, the state that will officially kick off the primary season when it holds its GOP caucuses next week.
Just as he has for every other GOP primary debate this cycle, Trump decided to skip out and hold an event of his own that aired simultaneously.
He repeatedly said that the debates wouldn’t benefit him at all, since he has such a huge lead in polls. If he were to have attended the debates, he argued, it would just give his opponents the chance to attack him and try to make a name for themselves.
When Fox was trying to lock down the town hall event with Trump, the network said that one of the former president’s demands was that it air at the same time that the debate was airing on CNN — 9 p.m. Eastern time.
Highlights of President Trump speaking with Iowa voters at last night's Town Hall. pic.twitter.com/Ere94rD0AP
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) January 11, 2024
Trump correctly predicted that holding his town hall at the same time as the debate would draw viewers away from Haley and DeSantis and to him. It was a masterful plan that drew positive attention his way and prevented people from hearing some of the negative comments that his rivals said about him.
Most critics of the town hall said that the Fox anchors who hosted the event threw softball questions at him, allowing him to avoid discussing some of the biggest controversies of his first term in the White House and of his actions since.
He was asked about previous statements he made that a president’s second term is ultimately about retribution on enemies.
“The ultimate retribution is success,” he said in reply.
The town hall marked Trump’s first appearance on a live Fox News broadcast since 2022.
