Trump Sings "Duel Play", the First Debate of the Republican Party's Primary Election in the United States
The first televised debate during the preliminary stage of the Republican presidential nomination was held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on the evening of the 23rd. Former President Donald Trump, as the most popular candidate for this nomination, chose to "skip" the debate and broadcast a personal interview on social media platform X a few minutes before the debate began to attract traffic.
Trump's Sense of Existence
The debate, which lasted about two hours, was hosted by Fox News anchors Martha McCallum and Brett Bell. The debaters were Florida Governor Ron de Santis, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, former Vice President Mike Pence, former United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
In the middle of the debate, the two hosts compared Trump to "an elephant not in the room" and asked the eight candidates participating in the debate to raise their hands and express their support if Trump was convicted of a criminal case but won the Republican presidential nomination. As a result, 6 out of 8 people raised their hands, while the remaining two were Christie and Hutchinson. Christie also had a heated argument with Ramaswamy, who claimed to be Trump's "iron fan", as a result.
When the host raised the first question about the US economy, De Santis and others criticized the current government's economic policies, believing that ordinary Americans are struggling to cope with expenses such as food, fuel, and cars.
A few minutes before the debate began, a pre recorded video of Trump's interview with well-known Fox News host Tucker Carlson was broadcasted on X platform, lasting 46 minutes. Trump explained his absence from the debate, stating that due to his current significant lead over his party's opponents, participating in the debate is meaningless. The Associated Press noted that Fox News had previously repeatedly invited Trump to participate in debates without success.
According to Reuters, Trump's interview did not discuss sensitive issues such as "whether the United States will go into civil war", and was mostly a "clich é d" one, involving controversies over the 2020 US presidential election, strengthening immigration controls, and attacking Democratic Party President Joseph Biden.
According to data from the X platform, the exclusive interview has seen approximately 74 million views, but it is not possible to confirm the specific browsing time of netizens. The ratings of the TV debate are expected to be announced on the 24th.
According to Agence France Presse, Biden's re-election campaign team has also spent a lot of money to seize the advertising slot before the live broadcast of this debate. Biden himself stated that he will "do his best" to watch the debate.
"New and Old Accounts" Outside the Debate Room
According to a poll released this month by Reuters and Ipso Group, 42% of voters who voted in favor of Biden in 2020 believed that the current economy was "worse" than it was in 2020, 33% thought it was "better", and 24% thought it was "similar". Reuters reported that some voters may switch to others in next year's presidential election due to Biden's poor economic governance.
Another poll released by Reuters and Ipso Group this month showed that Trump's approval rating among Republicans was 47%, while De Santis's approval rating fell 6 percentage points to 13% from July, and the approval ratings of other candidates were less than 10%.
Trump went to Atlanta, Georgia on the 24th to surrender in a criminal case suspected of overturning the results of the 2020 US presidential election in the state. Reuters reported that the majority of Republican voters believe that the accusations against Trump are politically motivated.
The Public Affairs Research Center, co founded by the Associated Press and the National Center for Public Opinion at the University of Chicago, conducted a survey this month showing that if the Republican presidential candidate were Trump, 64% of American voters were unlikely to support him; 53% of "unlikely supporters" have a firm attitude.