Global Courant 2023-05-04 12:02:51
The first Republican presidential debate is still at least three months away, but Donald Trump is already stirring the pot.
He first stated on Truth Social last week that he tends to skip one or both of the first two debates, blaming media hostility:
“If you’re leading by seemingly insurmountable numbers, and you have hostile networks of angry, TRUMP & MAGA-hating anchors asking the ‘questions,’ why subject yourself to libel and abuse?”
That seemed like a pretty strong statement that he would call off the early debates — the first on Fox News, scheduled for August — despite the RNC’s schedule.
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Former President Donald Trump addresses guests at the 2023 NRA-ILA Leadership Forum on April 14, 2023 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
The former president, during a swing in New Hampshire, quickly came up with another statement: “I have people at half of 1%, quarter of 1%, 1%, 3%, 2%, 4%, 7%. And Desanctis (sic ) is very low and crashes… We’re at 60 and 70%. Why would you do that?”
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This attracted modest coverage. I found his point of view so striking that I devoted a segment to it in last Sunday’s “Media Buzz.”
Than the New York Times did additional reporting for a piece on Tuesday, and suddenly the story was everywhere: CNN, NBC, Washington Post, the Hill.
The New York Times Building in Midtown Manhattan. (Fox News Photo/Joshua Comins)
Before anyone starts hyperventilating, candidates from both sides play this game.
Does anyone really expect President Biden to debate Marianne Williamson and Robert Kennedy Jr.? RFK, the anti-vax advocate, gained 19% in a recent poll, but he has the last name and provides a safe haven for the anti-Biden vote. I can’t imagine the President of the United States debating it because he’s a slot for the nomination.
Last fall, Democrat Katie Hobbs won the governorship of Arizona in part by refusing to debate Kari Lake, the Republican with a quarter-century of TV experience. Hobbs got flak even after claiming she didn’t want to give platform to Lake’s election denial, but probably would have lost the tight race had she debated.
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Is it better for democracy if candidates compete against each other? Of course it is. But it will not surprise you that candidates are mainly concerned with winning.
In the Times story, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan cite five unnamed sources in contact with Trump as reporting that he said “I’m ahead by too many points,” and “when he debates candidates that early who is in the single digits, there is no advantage to him.”
And then there’s what the play describes as “revenge.”
Former US President Donald Trump speaks during a 2024 election campaign in Waco, Texas, March 25, 2023. (Photo by SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP via Getty Images)
Trump does not want to hold the second debate, at the Reagan Presidential Library, because the chairman of the board of trustees is Fred Ryan, who is also the publisher of the Washington Post, a newspaper that the former president does not like. feelings.
As for the Fox debate, Trump has made no secret of his frustration with the network since it projected Biden as the winner in Arizona, and the news department’s refusal to accept its baseless allegations of election fraud. The Times says Trump doesn’t want to be questioned by chief political anchor Bret Baier — one of the most honest journalists I know and one who has interviewed him in the past.
By the way, the ex-president agreed to hold a town hall next week with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, which could be seen as a swipe at Fox. Trump hasn’t been on the network in nearly seven years that he labeled “fake news,” but that was then and this is now.
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Trump’s absence from the early debates would obviously shrink the audience. That happened when he turned down a Fox debate in 2016 after being angry at Megyn Kelly’s question about his derogatory comments about women in a debate last year.
Unless Ron DeSantis, his closest rival, manages to pull within striking distance, Trump may very well carry out his threat. Or maybe he’s just creating yet another media story to spark interest in his return to the debate stage.
Howard Kurtz is the host of the FOX News Channel’s MediaBuzz (Sundays 11am-12pm ET). Based in Washington, D.C., he joined the network in July 2013 and regularly appears on Special Report with Bret Baier and other programs.
Howard Kurtz is the host of FOX News Channel’s MediaBuzz (Sunday 11am-12pm ET). Based in Washington, DC, he joined the network in July 2013 and makes regular appearances Special report with Bret Baier and other programs.
