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The Republican Party is ready to get the presidential election year started as they gear up for the first primary debate in August. The candidates had to meet specific polling and fundraising goals to qualify for the big stage and it looks like Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and Sen. Tim Scott have all qualified to debate each other, according to Politico. However, the former president might be a no-show.
“Ronald Reagan didn’t do it, and a lot of other people didn’t do it,” Donald Trump said on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures. “When you have a big lead, you don’t do it.” That’s not great news to the GOP because if Donald Trump doesn’t show up as the frontrunner, the media coverage will likely be rather lackluster, and the ratings will also reflect his absence. What makes this situation a nail-biter for the Republican Party is that the deadline to RSVP for the debate is only 48 hours before the event. That means that Donald Trump can hold his party hostage until Aug. 21 before giving them a solid answer.
The other issue plaguing the Aug. 23 debate is the loyalty pledge that each candidate must sign to participate in the debate, promising to support whomever is the eventual nominee. Donald Trump doesn’t seem like the type of personality who would want to sign the pledge, and even if he did, he probably wouldn’t honor it down the road. Christie has also balked at signing the pledge, not in resistance to the GOP, but more as a dig at his archenemy, Donald Trump. “I’m going to take the pledge just as seriously as Donald Trump took it in 2016,” he told CNN earlier this summer.
The Republican Party has its hands tied at this point, waiting with bated breath to see if their leading candidate can even be bothered to show up. It’s a position the GOP would rather not see itself in, but as of right now, 2024 is likely to be a repeat showdown from 2020 with Joe Biden facing Donald Trump yet again.
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