On Sunday, former President Donald Trump touted the top line of a CBS News/YouGov poll.
“New CBS POLL, just out, has me leading the field by “legendary” numbers. TRUMP 62%, 46 Points above DeSanctimonious (who is crashing like an ailing bird!)” Trump posed on Truth Social. “I WILL THEREFORE NOT BE DOING THE DEBATES!”
But Trump won’t like the other findings in this poll.
The poll found that the primary voters want him to debate.
Between Aug. 16 and 18, the pollsters at CBS News surveyed a “nationally representative sample” of 538 people likely to vote in the Republican primary. They took into account both the respondents’ past votes and the U.S. Census American Community Survey and Current Population Survey.
Of the respondents likely to vote in the primary, a whopping 73 percent wanted Trump to debate.
69 percent of them would “probably” or “definitely” watch the debate with only 31 percent saying otherwise.
The pollsters also directed some questions at “those voting for Trump and considering other candidates.” 47 percent of them were withholding support from Trump because they were “waiting to see the debate.”
Like other primary polls, the CBS News poll suffers from a small sample and a high margin of error, at 5.7 percent. Plus, this poll was taken before Trump’s announcements about skipping the debate.
However, these majorities are outside the margin of error.
The candidates will debate Wednesday at 9 p.m. EDT. They will be broadcast across all Fox News platforms — including Fox Nation, Fox News Audio, and Fox Business Network.
They will also be live-streamed online via Rumble, according to some remarks from the R.N.C.
Some members of Trump’s campaign are planning to attend the debate, three insiders told CNN Thursday.
Trump may even send some campaign staffers to represent him in the spin room.
However, the debate hosts might block them from entering, given Trump’s decision to skip the debate.
The Horn editorial team