On The Same Night That Classified Docs Tape Drops, Trump Says He Won’t Do GOP Debates

On the same night that a tape was published revealing his discussion of classified documents, Trump announced that he won’t be participating in Republican presidential primary debates.

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When asked on Newsmax if he will be participating in the August Republican presidential primary debate, Trump answered:

 I’m  leading by a lot, and in many ways I’d love to, But in other ways, it seems foolish when you’re up, 40 points 45 points, maybe more than that. And you have guys like Hutchinson, who nobody ever heard of. He’s down at zero and

Christie’s down at one. And uh, even Mike Pence. I saw a number today was very discouraging. When you look at a number like that. It’s sort of I feel badly about it, but he was down at two and three and, uh, Nikki Haley is down at two. You know, you really say What’s to gain by being out there and having everybody shooting at you, and then you have a hostile network like Fox, like when I did tthe interview with Bret, I thought it was fine. I thought it was okay. But there was nothing friendly about it.

You know, it’s nasty, and I thought I did a good job. I’ve been given credit for doing a good job, but I’ve also, people said Why would you do it? Because it was really you know, everything was like And unfriendly. It was always everything was unfriendly, No smiling. No Let’s have fun. Let’s make America great again. Everything was like a hit. So you know you have a hostile network and you have people that are obviously they candidates are against you, And they therefore being hustled if you’re leading by 30, 40 or 50 points. What’s the purpose of really doing it?

Trump has been rumbling about not doing the Republican primary debates for months, but it probably isn’t a coincidence that the former president made his strongest public statement about not debating on the same night when a tape of him discussing his theft of classified materials was published by CNN. 

Even if the two events are unrelated, it looks bad for Trump that he decides not to debate on the same night that damning evidence against him is made public.

Donald Trump’s goal is to get the debates canceled.  Trump thinks that he is the ratings draw and without him, there is no reason for debates to be held. The ex-president is trying to force the Republican Party to hand him the nomination.

The Republican Party is sticking with a guy that is facing more than 70 felony charges and refusing to debate, as the Trump disaster only grows bigger for the GOP.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association