Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is challenging former President Donald Trump to appear at the 2024 Republican presidential primary debates.
Trump has said he will skip the first Republican debate — and has hinted that he may not attend any at all.
The 45th president said it was “not fair” that he should share the stage with low-polling candidates, considering the size of his lead in early polling.
“Ronald Reagan didn’t do it. A lot of people didn’t do it. When you have a big lead, you don’t do it,” he said about the first debate, scheduled for August 23.
Why would you be doing a debate? It’s actually not fair,” Trump said. “Why would you let someone that’s [polling] at zero, or one, or two, or three, you know, be popping you with questions.”
DeSantis, the leading challenger for the nomination, challenged Trump to show up — and said he “owes it to people to participate.”
“I think he owes it to people to participate. Nobody is entitled to be nominated. You’ve gotta earn it,” DeSantis said.
“You’ve gotta earn everything in this world.”
DeSantis: Trump “owes it to people to participate” in the primary debates.
“NOBODY is entitled to be nominated. You’ve got to earn it.” pic.twitter.com/DUp5UrrUeg
— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) July 20, 2023
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is polling below 2 percent, taunted Trump on a recent ABC News appearance.
“Come on, Donald, get on the stage and defend your record,” Christie said. “If you want to be the nominee, you need to defend your record. And he has a record, four years as president, where he didn’t deliver on a lot of issues that Republicans cared deeply about.”
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