Trump allies push him to walk away from debating opponents: report

Former President Donald Trump has threatened to skip some of the primary debates against his opponents for the Republican nomination in 2024 — which would be a repeat of 2016, in which he similarly declined to participate in every debate.

According to Joe Perticone of The Bulwark, many of Trump's allies are embracing this idea.

"Some of Trump’s most die-hard supporters — people like failed candidate for Arizona governor Kari Lake — think the primary should be scrapped altogether so the party can rally around him. But for now, Trump isn’t going that far. He just doesn’t want to have to debate," wrote Perticone. "It’s also difficult to see the political upside for Trump of participating in primary debates. They open him up to criticism from his fellow Republicans, including some who would stand to gain a lot of electoral visibility from taking a stand against him. He would have to defend his record in front of a large audience and respond in the moment to attacks targeting his potential weak spots (his administration’s COVID response, for example — or, on the other hand, his embrace of the vaccine, a position putting him at odds with the conspiratorial parts of the base)."

For this reason, wrote Perticone, some of Trump's traditional backers are completely on board with him walking away from the debates.

"I don’t know that it’s advantageous [to participate]. I think Trump has such a big platform and people already know him. And it probably brings more to anybody else than it brings to him. It’s ultimately President Trump's call and I trust his political judgment more than mine," said Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH). "He’ll do fine in any debate — you’ve seen him I’m sure — he’ll be fine in any debate that he undertakes. I just don’t know if it’s the best [strategy]," said Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN). And Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), who skipped his own initial primary debates with Jeff Sessions, said, I missed my first couple just for the simple fact that I’d been out there longer working at it and ... people knew more about what I was saying than anybody else."

Polling currently shows Trump far ahead of the rest of the field, with only Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis even pulling double digits in a competition with the former president.