Donald Trump Donald John TrumpBubba Wallace to be driver of Michael Jordan, Denny Hamlin NASCAR team Graham: GOP will confirm Trump's Supreme Court nominee before the election Southwest Airlines, unions call for six-month extension of government aid MORE kicked off the vice presidential debate by informing Fox News’s Megyn Kelly that he wouldn’t be attending the Farmville, Va., event in person.

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Trump, who announced earlier Tuesday he would be live-tweeting the only meeting between the two vice presidential candidates, Mike Pence Michael (Mike) Richard PenceGardner signals support for taking up Supreme Court nominee this year Biden leads Trump by 12 points among Catholic voters: poll GOP brushes back charges of hypocrisy in Supreme Court fight MORE and Tim Kaine Timothy (Tim) Michael KaineTrump meets with potential Supreme Court pick Amy Coney Barrett at White House Names to watch as Trump picks Ginsburg replacement on Supreme Court Barrett seen as a front-runner for Trump Supreme Court pick MORE, used the opening minutes to interact directly with Kelly, apparently in response to needling from the Fox News anchor about his Twitter plans.

Context for this: @MegynKelly quipped that Trump is "surrounded by his team," controlling his tweets, "like, Kellyanne's got the thumbs..." https://t.co/Nf4XG28aF6 — Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) October 5, 2016

.@megynkelly- I am in Nevada. Sorry to inform you Kellyanne is in the audience. Better luck next time. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016

".@megynkelly- I am in Nevada. Sorry to inform you Kellyanne is in the audience. Better luck next time," he tweeted just as the two candidates took the stage, referring to his campaign manager Kellanne Conway.