Republicans had their third debate in Miami on Wednesday, and for the third time, former President Donald Trump — leading everyone in the polls — was conspicuous mainly in his absence.
ABC News' Jon Karl agreed with George Stephanopoulos on "Good Morning America" Thursday that the GOP's unwillingness to properly deal with him is an indication of how it was a "Twilight Zone" debate.
"Look, this was a debate — Nikki Haley had a very strong performance once again, Chris Christie tried to look presidential, pleaded for unity, DeSantis may have been slightly better than he was in the past," he said. "But this was a debate from another dimension. This was the Twilight Zone debate, where Donald Trump doesn't exist."
"He was barely mentioned, and, you know, as they fought each other, there's no sense of the reality that none of them is within 30 or 40 points of Donald Trump. He is the far and away frontrunner," Karl continued. "And Nikki Haley can beat up Vivek Ramaswamy all she wants, but she's going to have to find a way to take down Donald Trump."
"The other way it was somewhat divorced from reality, it comes on the heels of this election day this week, where Republicans took another beating," said Stephanopoulos.
"Yeah, and Ramaswamy had a line last night that stood out to me. He said, 'We've become a party of losers,'" said Karl. "And objectively, there's a lot of evidence for that. Ever since 2016, when Donald Trump won the White House, Republicans have lost a series of races. Virtually every election cycle, you've seen Republican losses. But Ramaswamy put the blame on the party chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel. No mention of Donald Trump. But you know, look, basically I think that Nikki Haley is trying to get into a position where Donald Trump implodes and she is there to take the reins. You could see her in a general election debate. I think Republican voters are warming to her, but she's got to take down Trump somehow."
