On Wednesday, the first Republican presidential primary debate of the 2024 election cycle included eight contenders, with front-runner Donald Trump stealing the show despite declining the debate. The former president’s decision to skip the two-hour Milwaukee event denied a pack of challengers who are closely behind him in the polls the chance to confront him directly on stage.
Instead, he had an online-only interview with former Fox News personality Tucker Carlson minutes before the debate started. Trump’s many legal troubles, though, continued to hang over the discussion, and the Fox News moderators planned to ask him about them.
On Thursday, the former reality TV star will turn himself in to police in Atlanta in connection with his fourth criminal indictment of the year, which is related to an alleged criminal plot to rig the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden. Before the debate, Trump, 77, wrote in a campaign email, “I have bigger things to focus on than debating candidates who are polling at one percent on the night before my wrongful arrest.”
“At a time when we should be working together to defeat Crooked Joe, who is destroying America, we cannot waste time and resources arguing with members of our own party.”
– PRESSURE ON DESANTIS –
The debate provided Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, 44, who is Trump’s closest competitor, with a much-needed opportunity to turn around lagging polling results and show that he is a strong alternative to the front-runner. In a jab at Trump, Ron DeSantis’ team said, “Ron DeSantis will be center-stage at the #GOPdebate because he believes in EARNING your support, rather than expecting it to be handed to him.”
Candidates will probably be questioned on American foreign policy in the Ukraine and Russia, competitiveness with China, and other topics that made DeSantis stumble early in the campaign. The discussion served as a platform for individuals vying to be Trump’s running mate since a seismic change is required to unseat him.
For less well-known candidates like businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, the occasion provided an opportunity to promote themselves to a larger audience and present their qualifications for positions in a potential Trump government. However, experts contend that it is premature to declare a winner with more than four months left until the first nomination votes in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Former US senator Judd Gregg told the political website The Hill that “nobody’s caught the wave yet but somebody’s going to and when they do, Trump’s going to have a race on his hands.” The DeSantis campaign anticipates a similar scenario on Wednesday after Trump skipped a debate in Iowa in 2016, ensuring that his closest competitor Ted Cruz bore the brunt of the criticism.
Trump won’t have it all his own way, however; underdogs Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson are looking for a breakthrough moment by criticizing the previous president, and Mike Pence, the former vice president, isn’t going to hold back. Bret Baier, one of the debate co-moderators, stated, “I think it’s fair when these other candidates say it’s not a coronation, it’s an election.
Prior to the debate, the Biden campaign spent a lot of money on ad space on Fox News and its website, while the president pledged to watch as much of the event “as I can.” Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s former lawyer, turned himself up in the Georgian capital hours before the debate. Giuliani is accused of racketeering in the case along with Trump and 17 other co-defendants.
Giuliani told reporters outside the county prison in Atlanta, “I am very, very proud to be part in this case because this case is a struggle for our way of life.