Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee speak at Donald Trump's counter-debate event

Donald Trump, Rick Santorum, and Mike Huckabee.
(Image credit: William Edwards/AFP/Getty Images)

After appearing at the Fox News Republican undercard debate in Des Moines, Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee rushed across town to Drake University to attend a special event for veterans held by Donald Trump.

Trump announced his event to benefit veterans organizations earlier in the week, after he said he would not appear at the Fox News prime-time debate. Trump invited Santorum and Huckabee — both one-time winners of the Iowa caucuses — to speak, with Huckabee joking: "I had nothing to do at 8 o'clock tonight, this worked great for me."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.