Trump a distraction from real problems in US: Journalist

An American journalist says the United States has serious social, economic and geopolitical problems but the media are focusing on the trivial issue of whether Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump will participate in Thursday night’s GOP debate, adding, "That's American politics.”

Don DeBar, an anti-war activist and radio host in New York, made the remarks in a phone interview with Press TV on Thursday when asked to comment on Fox News’s request to Trump not to cancel his appearance at the network's GOP debate in Iowa.

Trump, the leading candidate for the Republican nomination, announced on Tuesday that he would not participate in the GOP debate because, he claimed, Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly treated him unfairly during a previous Republican debate hosted by the network.

Trump and Kelly have had an ongoing feud since the first GOP debate back in August during which Kelly confronted the controversial candidate about his disparaging remarks about women, calling them "fat pigs," "dogs," and "slobs."

“So now the media is giving Trump coverage - basically a debate about the debate - over a debate he is not even going to participate in, and he is the central figure because he is not participating,” DeBar said.

He said “Donald Trump is offered center stage essentially on Fox News – a fairly friendly outlet for his candidacy from the beginning, by the way."

"He has a problem with Megyn Kelly, because she called him on some of the outrageously sexist misogynist statements he’s made, like you would hope any candidate would be called on if they said some of those things, but it upset him, and he says he is not going to participate like a little kid, and that becomes, and the validity of his case becomes, the story,” he added.

“Now people at CNN are looking at this as an opportunity to go after some of Fox’s audience, those who are Trump-heads, and show that this proves that CNN is superior to Fox –  that Fox is biased, etc,” he stated.

“You know, Fox for years has been spewing the most outlandish and outrageous stuff, passing it off as news, and CNN - instead of challenging that when they have the opportunity on a daily basis -  has been basically copying Fox’s style; they have become more like Fox than Fox,” DeBar observed.

“Meanwhile, we are supposed to be having presidential elections. The United States has serious economic problems, serious geopolitical problems, half a dozen wars are going on, and all kinds of financial problems for the government, 40 million people - or 20 million people still without health insurance, and the other 20 million people that were added can’t really afford to use it - the housing crisis and everything else, and none of that is getting debated, what’s getting debated is whether Donald Trump is going to participate in the discussion with a group of other people who likewise will not be actually proposing any solutions to those problems. That’s American politics,” the analyst concluded. 

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www.presstv.co.uk