Former President Donald Trump will apparently skip the CNN Republican presidential primary debate in Des Moines, Iowa, next week. While the live debate is slated to air January 10 at 9 p.m. ET, according to CNN, the Fox News Channel will be hosting a live town hall event with Trump in Des Moines from 9-10 p.m. ET on the same date.
CNN has indicated that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, and Trump have each qualified for its debate in the Hawkeye State.
DeSantis and Haley plan to participate.
“We understand Donald Trump is scared to get on the stage because he’d have to finally explain why he didn’t build the wall, added nearly $8 trillion to the debt, and turned the country over to Fauci,” Andrew Romeo of the DeSantis campaign said in a statement. “But even Gavin Newsom had the courage to stand on the stage to debate his own failed record against Ron Desantis. If it would make the debate more inviting, we would gladly agree to make it a seated format where the former president would be more comfortable.”
Back on November 30, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, faced off against DeSantis in a one-on-one debate moderated by conservative commentator Sean Hannity.
Trump skipped all four of the Republican National Committee-affiliated GOP presidential primary debates last year. The CNN debate, which will be moderated by Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, is not tied to the RNC. Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum will moderate the Fox News Channel town hall event with Trump.
Trump enjoys a decisive lead over the rest of the Republican primary pack in polls. Later this month, the GOP presidential nominating contest will commence with the January 15 Iowa caucus.
“Forget @CNN’s fake Iowa ‘debate’ on Jan 10 which will be the most boring in modern history,” Republican presidential primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy tweeted. “We’re doing a live-audience show that night in Des Moines with @Timcast instead.”
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