This post has been updated.
Donald Trump on Wednesday morning told “Fox and Friends” that he will not participate in the Fox News Republican presidential debate on March 21 because he had already scheduled a speech before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
“Nobody even told me about it,” Trump said when asked if he would attend the next debate. “I thought the last debate on CNN was the last debate. That was going to be it. And I’m doing a major speech in front of a very important group of people, I think it’s eight or 9,000 people, that night. And it was scheduled a while ago.”
Trump did not seem disappointed that he will have to skip the debate.
“I think we’ve had enough debates,” he said on Fox. “How many times can the same people ask you the same question?”
When co-host Ainsley Earhardt told Trump that the voters love the debates, Trump said that “the networks love them.”
“The Republicans get good ratings if I’m in it,” Trump said.
Watch the clip via Fox News:
“I’m not going to be doing the [@Foxnews] debate.”
–@realDonaldTrumphttps://t.co/D8DofXStMZ— FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) March 16, 2016