Trump will NOT attend any Republican primary debates, but dominates the field anyway

By lauraharris // 2023-08-24

Mastodon

Parler

Gab

Copy

Former president Donald Trump has declared he will not attend any of the Republican Party's primary debates for the 2024 presidential elections. The front-runner for the GOP presidential primaries posted on his Truth Social account: "The public knows who I am and what a successful presidency I had – with energy independence, strong borders and military, biggest-ever tax and regulation cuts, no inflation, [the] strongest economy in history and much more. I will, therefore, not be doing the debates." Trump has strong reasons to do so, as he consistently remains in the No. 1 spot among other GOP candidates per a recent CBS poll conducted from Aug. 16 to Aug. 18. The former president believes his popularity among likely GOP voters gives him a distinct advantage over his rivals. Back in June, Trump told Brett Baier of Fox News that while he likes to debate, there was no point in doing so given his lead in various polls. He quipped: "Why would I allow people at one, two and zero percent to be hitting me with questions all night?" In a separate Truth Social post, he highlighted the poll's results and zoomed in on his "legendary" 62 percent lead. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis came at a distant second with 16 points, while entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy landed in third place with seven percent. Former Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson took the bottom spots with five percent and below. Meanwhile, second-placer DeSantis rebuked Trump over the latter's remarks. He said: "I think everyone should debate if you qualify. I think you owe it to the people to put out your vision, to talk about your record, answer questions about your record and decisions that you may have made or not made." "If you’re not willing to do that, then I think that people are not going to look kindly on that. So who knows what will end up happening? We'll be prepared either way."

Trump opts for exclusive interview instead of debate

True enough, Trump did not show up at the first debate sponsored by Fox News. "People know my record, one of the best ever, so why would I debate? I'm your man. Make America Great Again," he posted on Truth Social shortly after news of his absence during the Aug. 23 debate broke out. Instead, his camp intends to release a pre-recorded interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson on the same evening. But even before his posts on Truth Social, Trump already claimed that he had a "close to 100 percent" chance of winning against incumbent President Joe Biden during a campaign event in Iowa. His comment was backed by the fact that he secured a resounding victory over Biden in the Hawkeye State. A poll by the New York Times and Siena College found that most voters seemed to be in favor of Trump despite his multiple indictments. (Related: Trump 100% confident HE WILL WIN against Biden in the 2024 presidential elections.) Read the latest news about former President Donald Trump's presidential run at Trump.news. Watch this video to learn more about why Republican voters stand with Trump. This video is from the mcr channel on Brighteon.com.

CITIZENS NEWS

Trump opts for exclusive interview instead of debate

More related stories: