Ratings. Fox news last night put out this statement in response saying quote we are not sure how iowans are going to feel about him walking away from them at the last minute, but it should be clear to the American Public by now this is rooted in one thing, megyn kelly whom he has viciously attacked since august and has spent fourdays demanding to be removed from the debate stage. Opening the show megyn kelly said she is going to be here. I will be there. Bretts already there. I think wallace is coming today, i am not sure. But the debate will go on with or without mr. Trump. This could be a boom for trump with supporters but this is where he gets into political problems. Hes in a neck and neck race with ted cruz. What he is going to do by removing himself from the debate stage is hand cruz an unimpeded microphone from which he can spew to anything he wants about donald trump. He is giving cruz a huge iowa corn stock to beat him with all of the way through to the monday caucuses. Listen to this. If he doesnt expect hes telling the men and women of iowa he cant defend his record, he is admitting he cannot stand the scrutiny. That means he is not up to the job of being commanderinchief. Any one scared of mig gwen ke megyn kelly is not going to be able to stand up to Hillary Clinton or vladimir putin. What trump will do instead hold a competing event a fundraiser for veterans and Wounded Warriors which is a noble thing to do. Veterans and Wounded Warriors can get all of the help they can get. Certainly he will be able to raise a lot of money for him. This also is a very, very important debate. There are a lot of people in iowa who are undecided. Who knows abowhat they will thi about not being there. I like the line you use a huge corn stalk to beat him with. Reaction to trump skipping the big iowa debate pouring in from competitors. Hoping it means more time for them. Kristin fisher is live for us in washington, d. C. With that part of our coverage. They are had all jumping at the chance to take a shot at the republican frontrunner. Jeb bush accused him of being scared of tough questions from megyn kelly. Chris christie said is this really the way to react when things dont go your way. Mike huckabee offered to take his place in the main debate. Hard for me to understand. If this is the year an americ pn win the Iowa Caucuses by raising money and going in with blasting tv ads it could be the end of the iowa caucus as we know it. It doesnt matter whether he is there or not. I would be surprised if he is not there, though. You think he will show up in the end . I do think so. Whether he does or doesnt show up one thing not in question is trumps dominance in the polls. A poll shows trump at 41 percent. A new high. The closest rival ted cruz is 22 points behind. That is a huge gap. No other candidate has double digits. Marco rubio at 8 percent. Carson at 6, jeb bush at 5, everyone else is at 3 percent or less. This race is significantly tight in iowa. New poll has trump and cruz 2 points apart 3129. Mrashg co rubio at a distant third 13 percent. He has picked up quite a few endorsements Des Moines Register and former rival george pataki. This is turning into a tight two man race in the state with the caucus five days away. Heather, back to you. Too it will be a different dynamic. Kristin, thank you for that report. Trumps announcement coming 48hours before the big debate. Fox news contributor and former speech writer for president bush and brit hume explaining why they did i he did it. Hes run a very Smart Campaign up until now. This is his first major miss step. He looks like a big baby. His whole premise of his campaign is that hes tougher than all of the other candidates out there, democrats and republicans alike. A few months ago when Bernie Sanders had black lives protestpro matter protestors come. How can he handle this if he cant handle black lives matter. How can he handle being president if he cant handle fox news. He is going to leave the debate stage entirely to ted cruz a few days before the iowa caucus when 40 percent of voters havent made up their minds yet. Trump has never gotten over that first question you asked him which, you know, to me and to any other reasonable journalist was a completely fair question. But he never seems to have been able to get past that. I think its also partly about the fact that he may feel now, megyn, he caught up and passed ted cruz who is leading him in iowa and he can afford tois debs chance to take him on in a way that might be risky for trump. He might believe he can win such an exchange but he may feel hes in a position where it is not worth taking a chance. Prime time coverage of the debate starts right here on Fox News Channel thursday at 9 00 p. M. Eastern hosted by m Megyn Kelly Bret Baier and chris wallace. A bloody end to the oregon wildlife refuge standoff. One rancher killed in a group shootout and bundy is among several arrested. We have the breaking details. Good morning to you. Good morning, abby. This all went down during a traffic stop on a highway north of had a refuge. Ammon his brother ryan and three others were heading to a community meeting. They were stopped by oregon state police. It is not clear why. Moments later a shootout began. Group spokesman lavoy was killed. Ammon and his group were arrested. The other three happened in separate incidentsment all 8 are charged with conspiracy. Ammon from the back of the police car called her and told her that they had been arrested, that my son ryan had been shot in the arm and that Lavoy Finicum was murdered. They shot him with his hands up and just literally murdered him. Tensions have been growing ever since with many in the community demanding the group leave. It is not clear how many people are still at the refuge. The fbi will hold a News Conference later this morning. Heather . Patricia stark live for us. Thats around 10 30 a. M. Oo a muslim man now under arrest for planning a massacre at a masonic temple. The man from milwaukee told two under cover fbi agents said they should kill everybody in the temple with machine guns. He hadnt been under investigation since september. He was raised after buying machine guns from the under cover agents. Ethan couch could be back in the u. S. By the end of the week. The 18yearold just dropped an appeal against deportation in mexico and is preparing to come back to mtexas to face the charges. Couch and his mother fled to mexico after he possibly violating the terms of his probation after he have sentenced to probation for killing a man in a drunk driving accident. A woman is lucky to be alive after being buried in snow in her car. The death toll from the big blizzard now stands at 48 along the east coast as they continue to dig out of the snow. Federal agencies will open three hours late in washington. Schools in the dc area will also reopen today. Good morning. We are expecting to see the temperatures climbing here but they are going to be a little bit on the colder side during the nighttime hours at least coming up over the incomes few days. That will be something to watch for. Right now we have temperatures that are above freezing in places like new york and washington, d. C. And places like baltimore and philadelphia. Welcome news. We need help from Mother Nature to continue to melt the snow. As we head further mess we have had the cold front sweep through the midwest and cold er temperatures are in minneapolis. Colder temperatures in the teens. Forecast high temperatures staying cool across northeast even cooler as we head into tomorrow and the following day. Lets head over to you heather and abby. Maria molina. Thank you. The time now is 10 minutes after the hour. Under trained and out of control. The nations busiest air Traffic Control tower. A massive storm engulfed an suv full of people. The dramatic moments caught on camera. I am totally blind. I lost my sight in afghanistan. If youre totally blind, you may also be struggling with non24. Calling 8448442424. Or visit my24info. Com. Hwell match any competitorse best prprice. This . What about this . Price match guarantee. And this . Yep so no monkey business, no tomfoolery . Oh, we do have tom foolery, tom. Staples has a price match guarantee. Make low prices happen. Staples make more happen. Every Auto Insurance policy has a number. But not every Insurance Company understands the life behind it. Those who have served our nation have earned the very best service in return. Usaa. We know what it means to serve. Get an Auto Insurance quote and see why 92 of our members plan to stay for life. Authorities comparing the inmates to the twisted movie character han ill lector. When asked he said quote they let Hannibal Lecter out. He may be responsible for planning the escape. Trying to figure out how it took more than 15 hours to even realize the three were gone. Prison records show the three men cut through deal bars and used a bed sheet to gain access to the roof. They have quadrupled the reward from 15,000 now up to 200,000 dollars. Recently captured mexican drug kingpin el chapo not getting much sleep these days due to guard dogs and hourly checkups. He hasnt seen his family since being recaptured several weeks ago and the drug lord made an elaborate escape from the same mexican prison back in july. Chilling new photos published from it jihadi john without a mask. He was killed back in november by a u. S. Drone strike. These photos were released in a report circulateed by a media outlet affiliated with the terrorist group. It is not clear when and where they were taken. Now back to the race for the white house. Donald trump skipping tomorrow nights debate. He claims fox news host megyn kelly is biased against him since this exchange in the fox news debate back in august. Your twitter account has several despair yajing comments about womens looks does that sound to you like a temperament we should elect as president and how will you answer the charge with Hillary Clinton who is likely to be the democratic nominee that you are part of the war on women . Senator ted cruz is now calling out trump for bowing out. Correspondent john roberts is live for us with more. Good morning, john. Good morning, heather. This does go back to august. Pfdz a completely legitimate question. Clinton will hit him with everything they have got. That will be one of the central lines of attack. You heard about that on the campaign trail. For that not to be asked would have been a missed opportunity. I am not sure whats at work here looking at this from a political standpoint. I dont know if hes worried megyn kelly will bring up something he doesnt want to talk about or hes afraid of fumbling a question with fourdays left or perhaps he does genuinely feel fox news slighted him by making a little fun of him. It appears that at this point he is not going to be here tomorrow night. W what he is doing politically is handing ted cruz three points behind him an unimpeded mega phone to take the stage on thursday night and have senter stage all to himself. Listen to the way ted cruz is playing it. I didnt like the press releases that fox put out. It is like they are playing games. I dont like it when people play games. You know, donald is a fragile soul. If she asks him mean questions his hair might stand on end. Ted cruz is now making fun of him. Hes got as i said at the beginning of this at 5 00 hes giving him a big corn stock to beat him along the way until monday. Ted cruz is doing everything he can. He said hes afraid but he is going to try to make him look chicken, heather. Trumps followers one of the reasons they like him he listens to them and he tells them how it is. He asked them what he should do on instagram. Correct . He did. He put out a question on instagram and twitter should i appear at the debate should i not appear at the debate. I think for the last count 57 percent of his followers said he should appear at the debate. You are darned right. Hes the frontrunner in iowa. Theres only five days left until the caucuses. More than 30 percent of iowans polled said they should change their minds or they are undecided. Theres a lot of people who will be looking at the debate to say which is the one that measures up that i want to vote for in this is the time when those people will be making up their minds. For him to bail out i think it can really hurt him. His followers and supporters says he should do it. With he will see if he changes his mind again. Thank you so much, john. The time is currently 19 after the hour. The zeta virus spreading in the united states. Which airlines are offering a refund to travelers with tickets going to infected areas. They are told not to make their prayers public. They are now ready to go to court. Are you ready . Are you ready . I mean, really ready . Are you ready to open . Ready to compete . Ready to welcome . Do you look buttoned up, prepared, professional . Youve got to be ready. The floors, mats, spotless. The uniforms clean and crisp, ready to produce. Ready for the unexpected. Are you ready to prosper, to grow . Do your people have the right safety gear . Are they protected . To be ready is to anticipate. Prepare. Emergency lights, alarm panel. Ready. Ready . Ready. Ready is safe. You think your customers cant tell the difference between whos ready and whos not . Of course they do. You, have anticipated, prepared, figured out, focused. Youre ready. Im ready ready is the hero. A hero. Ready . Ready. Ready. Youre ready. Everybody wants a piece of ready. New zicam cold remedy nasal swabs shorten colds with a snap, and reduce symptom severity by 45 . Shorten your cold with a snap, with zicam. I tried depend last weekend. It really made the difference between a morning around the house and getting a little exercise. Only depend underwear has new confidence Core Technology for fast absorption and the smooth, comfortable fit of fitflex™ protection. Get a coupon at depend. Com welcome back to fox and friend first. Fears escalating as the virus spreads. 18 people infected in eight states. The cdc adding costa rica and the u. S. Virgin islands and Dominican Republic to the list expectant mothers should avoid. Airlines are offering refunds for people who cancel trips to the areas. The zika virus is spread by mosquitos and can cause brain damage to unborn babies. A former new york giants player who died at 27 years old was diagnosed with cte. It has been found in many former Football Players and has been linked to head dratraumas. He died in september after an accidental drug overdose. Oo it is time to brew on this. It is a fight for faith. Christian school in tampa now defending its right to pray at Football Games. They are demanding an apology from the Florida High SchoolAthletic Association or the case could end up in court. Frankly, it was frustrating. It hurt. We were upset about it. We need to stand up for what is right to set an example for others that are coming after us. This comes after being told back in september they couldnt broadcast a prayer before facing off another Christian School in a district championship game. The fhsaa had said that it was against federal law to use the loud speaker for prayer because they were playing in public property. School have a faur point or is it evaluation of free speech . Facebook, twitter or email at foxfriendsfirst foxnews. Com. Everybody including heather gearing up for soule bowl 50. But if you cant get the big game which tvs are best to watch it at home . Fox News Headlines 24 7 sirius xm 115 is here with the tvs worth it. If you cant get the super bowl you can watch it at home. New hightech tvs which ones are a true touchdown and which ones can you pass on. Know before you go. There are a lot of confusing words. Refresh rate, contrast ratio and led screens. Focus on two things your budget and the size of your room. Actually bigger is better when it comes to tvs. Two big can be too much for your living room. If you are sit mooinger than 10 feet away you can go beyond a 50 inch television. There are online guides that will hill you how big you can go defending on the size of your room. Dont believe the hype. 4 k is great, 8 k is better. But the game will only be in had d. 1080 p will give you the best picture. To watch theres only a handful of 4 k programs none are on cable or satellite right now. Speaking of 8 k we heard about it at the show but we have a long ways to go before it becomes reality. Unlike 8 k there isnt anything you can get in your home in hk. The tvs break the bank. Maybe spend money on better snacks. Good advice. You can hear brett larson on fox headlines. Hopefully the panther also win. 26 after the top of the hour. A controversial bill where refugees now have to help pay for their stay. Are you feeling sleepy all of the time . How social media could be messing with your sleep. I want to hear this. Your path to retirement. May not always be clear. But at t. Rowe price, we can help guide your retirement savings. For over 75 years, investors have relied on our disciplined approach to find long term value. So wherever your Retirement Journey takes you, we can help you reach your goals. Call a t. Rowe price retirement specialist or your advisor. To see how we can help make the most of your retirement savings. T. Rowe price. Invest with confidence. 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