Donald Trump Drops from Next GOP Debate After Successful Super Tuesday, Leading Fox News to Cancel Entirely

Posted on: March 16, 2016, 01:36h. 

Last updated on: March 16, 2016, 03:22h.

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Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are closer this morning to securing their respective party’s nomination for the presidential general election, following yet another dominating Tuesday primary session.

The leading Republican and Democrat for the 2016 race both took Florida, North Carolina, and Illinois, while Clinton also claimed Ohio over her challenger, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Trump’s lone defeat came in the Buckeye State, where voters fulfilled their current Governor John Kasich’s must-win undertaking.

Unfortunately for supporters of Florida Senator Marco Rubio, his campaign’s last stand was overtaken by the outspoken billionaire businessman in his own state. Following the results, Rubio announced he was suspending his campaign.

In an election that started with over 20 candidates on the two sides, it’s now down to just five, though political gurus have largely discounted Sanders and Kasich. The delegate picture seems to back that notion.

Trump now leads the GOP side with 673 delegates, Cruz has 411, and Kasich has just 143. A Republican candidate must receive 1,237 delegates to secure the nomination and avoid a contested convention.

Clinton holds 1,568 delegates to Sanders’ 797. The Democratic candidate needs 2,383 delegates to become the party’s nominee.

No Show Trump Leads to Canceled GOP Debate in Utah

Continuing his trend of always surprising and never toeing the party line, Trump announced earlier today that he would not partake in next Monday’s scheduled Republican debate in Utah, opting instead to address the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Conference (AIPAC) in Washington, D.C. that day. The GOP frontrunner claimed he’d known nothing of the next debate on a Fox & Friends interview held this morning.

“I was very surprised when I heard that Fox called for a debate. Nobody told me about it. I won’t be there, no,” said Trump in his inimitably ingenuous style. Fox subsequently cancelled the event after Kasich followed suit and dropped out as well.

“We had hoped to contrast Governor Kasich’s positive inclusive approach to problem solving with Trump’s campaign of division,” said John Weaver via email to FOX 13. Weaver is Kasich top campaign strategist.

“This morning, Donald Trump announced he would not be participating in the debate. Shortly afterward, John Kasich’s campaign announced that without Trump at the debate, Kasich would not participate. Ted Cruz has expressed a willingness to debate Trump or Kasich — or both. But obviously, there needs to be more than one participant. So the Salt Lake City debate is cancelled,” said Michael Clemente for Fox News this morning.

And Now, Back to Your Regularly Scheduled Results…

Wednesday morning the Show-Me State remains too close to call on either side. With 99 percent of the vote tallied and submitted, Trump holds a 40.8 percent lead over Cruz at 40.6 percent. On the Democratic side, Clinton is edging Sanders 49.6 to 49.4 percent.

Since both sides are within the one percentage point margin of error, news outlets aren’t calling the race for either Trump or Clinton. Election officials in Missouri say 100 percent of precincts are reporting, but that absentee and provisional ballots remain uncounted.

The divide among voters in Missouri highlights the general sentiment of the 2016 election in the United States. The Republican Party remains conflicted on their tenacious frontrunner, while Democrats continue to ponder whether Clinton has the same appeal as her husband or predecessor President Barack Obama.

Will Rubio Back Cruz?

Once the favorite among the so-called “establishment,” Rubio’s campaign to become president might have come at the least opportune period in his 44-year lifetime. Americans are downright mad at politicians, and in the Republican Party, the answer thus far has been Donald Trump.

“America’s in the middle of a real political storm, a real tsunami, and we should have seen this coming,” Rubio said last evening. “After tonight it is clear that while we are on the right side, this year we will not be on the winning side.”

GOP strategists against Trump have been calling for either Cruz or Rubio to exit the race to create a more unified coalition against the non-traditional conservative.

Avik Roy, Rubio’s campaign manager, wrote in a Forbes op-ed Wednesday, “There is only one option left for conservatives to win the White House. The time to unite around Ted Cruz is now.”