Once again, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will not be participating in the next GOP primary debate, choosing instead to be featured at a town hall event that will air simultaneously.
While the next GOP debate is being held on Jan. 10 in Iowa and aired on CNN, Trump will appear for a town hall event on Fox News. That event will be hosted by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum — the former whom Trump criticized after he gave an interview with him in summer 2022.
Trump has skipped every GOP primary debate thus far, opting instead to host individual events at the same time they air to draw attention to him and away from the other Republican presidential candidates.
The former president has long said that he wouldn’t attend the debates, as they wouldn’t do him any good. Since he has maintained such a commanding lead in Republican primary polls, he said attending the debates could only benefit his challengers, who would likely seek to make headlines by attacking him.
“The public knows who I am & what a successful Presidency I had,” he posted on Truth Social in August. “I WILL THEREFORE NOT BE DOING THE DEBATES!”
The GOP debate and Trump’s town hall will take place less than a week before the Iowa caucuses are held on Jan. 15.
Many people, including the other GOP candidates, have said that Trump won’t attend the debates because he’s afraid he won’t be able to control the narrative. So, instead, he has lined up events that feature just him and that don’t force him to answer any tough questions.
Chris Christie says Trump won’t attend the debate because Trump is “afraid of” Christie 😭😂pic.twitter.com/wXSwFeswba
— Julia 🇺🇸 (@Jules31415) August 20, 2023
During the first GOP debate, Trump had a pre-recorded interview he gave to former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson air simultaneously on the social media platform X.
For the last debate that was held in December, Trump hosted a private fundraiser that in his home state of Florida.
While Trump said he’s looking forward to debating President Joe Biden should the two win their respective parties’ nominations, as expected, Biden hasn’t committed to participating in such a debate yet.
