Mitt Romney says “nay’’ on Donald Trump debate

By Tracy Jan

December 6, 2011

1 minute to read

WASHINGTON — It’s official. Mitt Romney is skipping the controversial GOP debate moderated by Donald Trump later this month in Des Moines.

Romney announced on Fox News this afternoon that he will not be participating, saying he told Trump in a call today that he’s already agreed to two other debates in Iowa in December.

“The rest of the month is going to be spent campaigning, doing the political work you’ve got to do to get the support of political people in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida. So we’ll be hitting the trail,’’ Romney said.

Trump apparently greeted the rejection with graciousness.

“He understood my perspective and wished me well,’’ Romney said.

“We had a nice chat,’’ Romney added, “and I just told him that at this late day and with the other debates we’ve already scheduled and with the number of requests–by the way, I think there are several other five or 10 other debate requests we’ve had for December and January. We just can’t do them all. So we try to do a couple a month.’’

The former Massachusetts governor joins fellow Republican candidates Ron Paul, a congressman from Texas, and Jon Huntsman, former Utah governor, in bowing out of the Dec 27 debate.

So far, just Newt Gingrich, former House speaker, and Rick Santorum, former Pennsylvania senator, have signed up.

Romney’s pass on the debate is a likely disappointment to the Huntsman campaign. Tim Miller, a Huntsman spokesman, had told Business Insider earlier that they were “looking forward to watching Mitt and Newt suck-up to The Donald with a big bowl of popcorn.’’

The debate, co-hosted by Newsmax, a conservative magazine and news website, will be broadcast on the cable network ION Television exactly one week from the Iowa caucuses.