What’s Happening:

We learned this week that Donald Trump will not attend the first Republican Presidential debate. Chances are, he won’t attend any of the debates planned by the GOP. From what the former president’s said, his high polling numbers mean he doesn’t need to bother debating his rivals.

This week, the very first debate will be held, hosted by Fox News. Trump will instead do an interview with Tucker Carlson. However, many of his surrogates–allies who promote and defend the candidate–planned to attend the event, even talk in the spin room. Fox News wasn’t having any of that.

From The Post Millennial:

After Trump said he would not attend, opting instead for an interview with Tucker Carlson on his new streaming show, Fox said that Trump campaign surrogates would be prevented from attending under the credential of being with a presidential campaign…

“Fox News, which is hosting the first GOP primary debate, informed the Trump campaign on Monday they will no longer provide credentials to some Trump surrogates to attend the spin room given Trump is not planning on participating.”

According to reports, Donald Trump Jr. and his fiancée, members of Trump’s campaign, planned to attend the first Republican debate. In fact, other Trump allies including Rep. Matt Gaetz had planned to attend the debates and the spin room.

The spin room is where campaign figures attack their rivals’ performances. Surrogates attend the spin room, questioning what the other candidates said and defending their candidate’s stances.

So, Trump wanted to avoid debating the other Republican candidates–avoid their criticisms and attacks–but still wanted his people in the spin room attacking everyone else.

We can imagine why Trump wanted to avoid this debate, and it probably had nothing to do with his polling. Trump is running for president while facing four indictments and numerous charges. Even though many voters believe these charges are politically motivated, Trump still would have had to answer for them during the debate.

DeSantis, Haley, and the other candidates would have challenged Trump over these charges. It would be just as easy for Trump to skip the debate and avoid those questions entirely.

But to then expect his surrogates to show up and pump him up was out of the question. If Trump couldn’t show up for the debate, why should his people still be able to attack the other candidates from the safety of the spin room?

This rule applies to all Republican candidates. Those who do not attend the debate will not have credentials given to their surrogates.

What do you think? Should Trump have attended the debate? Does ditching it make him look weak to the voting public?

Key Takeaways:

• Fox News canceled the credentials for Trump surrogates at the first debate.
• Trump announced he was skipping the debate, claiming he was polling too well.
• Trump still wanted his surrogates to attend the spin room, to attack his rivals.

Source: The Post Millennial