Ronna McDaniel predicts Trump won’t boycott GOP debates: ‘He did very well’ in 2016
Ryan King
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Former President Donald Trump will participate in the GOP presidential debates despite bashing them publicly, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel predicted.
“I think he’ll do it. President Trump never shies away from a debate, and he did very well on the debate stage in 2020 as well as 2016,” McDaniel told Fox and Friends on Wednesday.
TRUMP HINTS HE MAY SKIP GOP DEBATES: ‘NOBODY GOT MY APPROVAL’
“He does. … He skipped ours in 2016,” co-host Brian Kilmeade interjected.
“He did. He skipped one. But you know, he was on the center of the debate stage in 2016, and he never left it, so we’ll see what happens. But we are talking to the campaigns and the candidates,” McDaniel replied.
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1651203889213915136?s=20
Trump signaled Tuesday that he was souring on the 2024 debates, complaining that “nobody got my approval, or the approval of the Trump campaign.”
McDaniel appeared to indicate during the interview that the RNC has been in contact with his campaign.
“When you’re leading by seemingly insurmountable numbers, and you have hostile Networks with angry, TRUMP & MAGA-hating anchors asking the ‘questions,’ why subject yourself to being libeled and abused?” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday.
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In 2016, Trump boycotted a Fox News debate in Iowa amid a spat with former network anchor Megyn Kelly. He went on to lose the Iowa caucuses and attended the next debate. Trump also skipped the second scheduled 2020 debate with President Joe Biden due to disagreements over COVID-19 rules and the moderator.
The RNC announced its first primary debate will take place in Milwaukee in August and will be hosted by Fox News. The second debate will take place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, but details about the moderator and date have not been revealed.