sponsored by Newsmax coming up at the end of the month, but unlike his fellow GOP primary candidates Jon Hunstman and Ron Paul who were willing to say openly that the debate is a joke, in typical Romney fashion, he punted.

Fox's Neil Cavuto asked Romney if he'd be attending and his excuse was that his schedule is already full for the month.

Here's more from The Hill -- Romney won't participate in Trump debate, cites busy campaign schedule:

Mitt Romney will not be attending the upcoming Republican presidential debate moderated by Donald Trump, citing scheduling conflicts.

"No, I'm not participating in that," Romney said Tuesday during an interview with Fox News. "The rest of the month is going to be spent campaigning … we'll be hitting the trail."

Romney said he called Trump earlier Tuesday to tell him that he would be unable to participate.

"He understood my perspective and wished me well," the former Massachusetts governor said. [...]

But Romney avoided criticizing Trump directly in declining to appear at the debate.

"I think there are several other debate requests we've had for December and January, we just can't do them all," Romney said.