Donald Trump on Tuesday evening said that his decision to boycott the latest Republican presidential debate hosted by Fox News may have cost him votes in Iowa.
“It could’ve been with the debate. I think some people were disappointed that I didn’t go in the debate,” Trump told reporters at a campaign event in New Hampshire while discussing his second place finish in the Iowa caucus.
But the real estate mogul does not regret his decision.
“If I had to do it again, I would have done the exact same thing. And the reason is — do you know why? Because I raised $6 million for the vets in one hour,” he said. “So if I took a second place instead of a first place and could give the vets $6 million dollars, I’ll do that all day long.”
He also lamented that the amount of attention Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has received after he finished third in the Iowa caucus.
“People didn’t talk about my second place. They didn’t talk about it as positively as they should’ve,” Trump said. “And yet with Marco, who was more than 2,000 votes behind me — that’s a lot of votes, by the way — they said, ‘Oh, he’s surging. He’s surging.'”
Watch the video via CNN: