Elections

Trump Gets ABC To Dump New Hampshire Paper

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Blake Neff Reporter
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Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is claiming another scalp: getting a hostile newspaper removed from participation in an upcoming Republican debate.

ABC News planned to have the Feb. 6 Republican debate at St. Anselm College in Manchester be co-branded with the New Hampshire Union Leader. The branding was largely superficial; the paper wasn’t going to contribute any questions or have any personnel participate as moderators. Still, it would have lent local New Hampshire character to the debate while also giving publicity and attention to the Union Leader, the state’s largest newspaper.

But now the Union Leader co-branding has been dumped by ABC, which cited an ongoing war of words between the paper and Trump. The move was first reported Sunday afternoon by Politico.

“We felt that the current war of words with Trump, coupled with the endorsement already made, put us in a difficult position — there was just too much distraction from what we need to accomplish in the debate,” ABC News vice president Robin Sproul said in an email to the Union Leader, which the paper published.

The Union Leader endorsed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for the Republican nomination in November. Two weeks ago, the paper ran a front-page editorial blasting Trump’s candidacy, with publisher Joseph McQuaid calling Trump a “crude blowhard” whose candidacy is an “insult to the intelligence of Republican voters.” McQuaid says the media has heavily covered Trump’s campaign in the hopes of boosting Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and he compares Trump to the villainous bully Biff from the “Back to the Future” series.

The endorsement and editorial sparked fierce attacks from Trump, who says the paper is “dying” and has a horrendous track record when it came to choosing winning candidates.

McQuaid accused ABC of shamelessly giving in to outside pressure while disingenuously blaming his paper for the break-up.

“We are amused by ABC apparently just discovering that we write editorials and endorse candidates,” McQuaid says in the paper’s own write-up of the situation. “We have been doing both for decades and it hasn’t been an issue for ABC or anyone else. We consider ABC’s actions to be spineless. Between bowing to the DNC and Trump, ABC is more concerned about appeasing the parties and candidates than informing voters.”

Trump, meanwhile, used Twitter to take credit for ABC’s move, boast about his victory, and continue to ruthlessly bash the paper and McQuaid:

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