Those Republican presidential debates you never watched are finally over. ABC News and WMUR have cancelled Thursday’s scheduled debate in New Hampshire, because neither Donald Trump nor Nikki Haley is participating. It’s also probably criminal to just air two uninterrupted hours of what passes for Ron DeSantis’s face.
From ABC News:
“Our intent was to host a debate coming out of the Iowa caucuses, but we always knew that would be contingent on the candidates and the outcome of the race,” an ABC News spokesperson said in a statement. “As a result, while our robust election coverage will continue, ABC News and WMUR-TV will not be moving forward with Thursday’s Republican presidential primary debate in New Hampshire.”
Donald Trump, busy as he was with his multiple criminal and civil trials, refused to show up for any of the past debates, and although his theoretical primary opponents lectured him in abstentia — it was “cowardly” and “disrespectful” even! — Republican primary voters weren’t terribly offended. Trump cruised to victory Monday in the Iowa caucus.
Anti-Trump conservatives in particular swooned over Nikki Haley’s debate performance, and there was bipartisan approval whenever she verbally smacked Vivek Ramaswamy. However, this ultimately didn’t help her much in Iowa, where she finished a disappointing third like poor little Marco Rubio (whose percentage of the vote was still greater than Haley or DeSantis’s).
You might assume that Haley withdrew from the debate because she realizes there’s no point continuing in a primary where she’s so far only defeated Vivek Ramaswamy. However, that’s not her reasoning. No, Tuesday morning, rather than curling up in bed and binge-watching “Miss Scarlet and The Duke,” Haley found the strength to get up and spout nonsense.
“We’ve had five great debates in this campaign,” the former South Carolina governor said. “Unfortunately, Donald Trump has ducked all of them. He has nowhere left to hide. The next debate I do will either be with Donald Trump or with Joe Biden. I look forward to it.”
Trump isn’t hiding from Haley, especially since she’s too afraid to confront him on actual serious issues that matter. She keeps going on about the debt he racked up as president and never mentions that he’s a rapist who tried to overthrow the government. I personally wouldn’t vote for the sexual predator even if he had balanced the budget. She rightly called Ramaswamy “scum” but she remained silent after Trump went full birther on her. It seems like she’s the one who’s hiding, not just from Trump but from the entire Republican base.
It’s not clear that she’d actually win a debate against Trump since she apparently hasn’t done any basic prep work. She feigned total obliviousness over Trump’s mounting criminal charges Tuesday when she told CNN’s Dana Bash, “I haven’t paid attention to his cases.” The motherfucker’s on trial for espionage and aggravated insurrection, but Haley’s acting like this is some Marvel movie star’s trial. I don’t expect presidential candidates to have opinions on whether they should recast Kang in The Avengers.
During her Barbara Jean from Nashville speech Monday, Haley said, “When you look at how we’re doing in New Hampshire, in South Carolina, and beyond, I can safely say tonight, Iowa made this Republican primary a two-person race.”
I figured you wouldn’t believe me so here’s the video:
She’s obviously never debating Joe Biden. It’s just sad. Look, who hasn’t wanted to mix it up with Old Handsome Joe? Not every dream comes true. My bum knee is why I was never Velma Kelly on Broadway.
It’s only fair (or at least amusing) to mention that Haley’s frequent target Kamala Harris has debated Biden, several times, and currently serves as vice president, a position that might also elude Haley, who shall eventually return to South Carolina utterly defeated and humiliated.
[ABC News]
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