Trump to skip Republican debate in Iowa for Fox News town hall

Donald Trump will not break from his pattern of skipping Republican presidential primary debates and will counter-program with a Fox News town hall during the final showdown before the Iowa caucuses. On January 10, CNN will host a debate with higher thresholds that Trump and only two others meet: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley.

The debate begins on January 10 at 9:00 PM ET at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. At exactly the same time, Trump's town hall, hosted by Fox News, begins. With Trump at his town hall, 2024 candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will also hold a “live audience show” that same evening in Des Moines, Iowa, with conservative media personality and commentator Tim Pool. Ramaswamy said CNN's “fake Iowa debate… will be the most boring debate in modern history.”

It comes after the self-made millionaire was deemed ineligible under CNN's stringent requirements to take the stage for Iowa's only debate ahead of the Jan. 15 caucuses. Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was also ineligible. This means that only Haley and DeSantis will face off on the debate stage.

“With only three candidates eligible, it's time for Donald Trump to show up,” Haley said in a statement after Trump announced he would once again skip the primary debate. She added: “As the debate stage gets smaller and smaller, it becomes harder and harder for Donald Trump to hide.”

DeSantis' campaign said Trump is still “afraid to take the stage” because he would have to answer for his record as president, which they said was less than stellar. Communications director Andrew Romeo suggested the 77-year-old candidate might be more comfortable sitting down because he prefers to participate in interviews and town halls rather than debates.

“We understand that Donald Trump is afraid to take the stage because he finally has to explain why he didn't build the wall, added nearly $8 trillion to the debt and turned the country over to Fauci,” Romeo wrote in an email speech. rack. “But even Gavin Newsom had the courage to stand on stage and debate his own failed record against Ron DeSantis.”

“If that would make the debate more inviting,” he added, “we would happily agree to make it a sitting debate, where the former president would feel more comfortable.” Ramaswamy and Christie qualified for all four GOP debates hosted by the Republican National Committee (RNC) in August, October, November and December. Then RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel announced they would no longer hold primary debates — paving the way for other entities to start hosting the events.

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