Trump is Right About the Futility of Further GOP Debates — And That’s Bad News

Colby HallSep 28th, 2023, 11:40 am
 

Former President Donald Trump has called on the Republican National Committee to cancel all future Republican primary debates for the 2024 race, and after watching the enormous waste of time that was the second debate on Wednesday night, I’m afraid he makes a salient point.

The facts are clear: Trump’s lead over his rivals appears insurmountable at this point. Consider this “fun” fact:

More importantly, when the Republican Party is defined by one person — Trump — it’s pointless to have a debate without that person on the stage. The candidates can’t do anything about that, the Republican voters who don’t want another four years of Trump can’t do anything about that, and the feckless RNC is willing to do anything about it.

In the waning minutes of Wednesday’s debate, a spokesman for the Trump campaign released a statement calling for the cancellation of all future Republican primary debates so that the party can train its fire on “Crooked Joe Biden.”

Trump took it a step further and questioned the core competence of the RNC in an interview with the Daily Caller’s Henry Rodgers, who wrote:

In an exclusive sit-down interview with the Daily Caller, Trump said there would not be a breakout candidate and the debates are bad for the Republican Party.

“They have to stop the debates. Because it is just bad for the Republican Party. They are not going anywhere. There is not going to be a breakout candidate,” Trump said, before saying who he thought performed best in the second presidential debate.

“I am very concerned about the RNC not being able to do their job,” Trump added.

Of course, in Trump’s eyes, the RNC’s job is solely to promote his candidacy for a second term. And seeing as he is 30-50 points ahead of his rivals, he makes a fair point. But the RNC sees its role differently: to support all Republican candidates that get past certain thresholds.

But the RNC also sets the agenda and format for debates — and last night’s event was an utter failure.

Foremost was a shockingly bad audio system that picked up the echo/reverb that naturally came as a result of hosting a debate in a converted airplane hanger. Not only was it hard to make out what candidates said when they were the only ones speaking, but it made the crosstalk and inter-candidate sniping entirely unintelligible. Mediaite’s Micahel Luciano captured a perfect snippet as an example:

That brief clip is as good evidence as any supporting Trump’s decision to skip the sideshow.

In fact, the general election campaigning has already started. It kicked off in Detroit, where Trump appeared just before the debate started, following President Joe Biden’s appearance with striking autoworkers the day before.

The bottom line is that unless the RNC can somehow convince Trump to participate in a future debate, there is little to no reason to continue hosting them. And if anything is clear, the RNC and its chief, Ronna McDaniel, have zero power over Trump and his stranglehold on the Grand Old Party.

It’s the Trump show now. Traditional establishment Republicans have lost any semblance of power, and if they aren’t careful, they will soon be extinct.

Given how his administration ended in violent chaos and an attempt to steal the election from the rightful winner, that’s very bad news.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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Colby Hall - Founding Editor

Colby Hall is the Founding Editor of Mediaite.com. He is also a Peabody Award-winning television producer of non-fiction narrative programming as well as a terrific dancer and preparer of grilled meats.