Washington, DC [US], August 24 : United States former President Donald Trump, on Wednesday (local time), skipped Republicans's first 2024 presidential primary debate and questioned what he would be doing there, sitting for 2 hours and getting harassed by people "that shouldn't be running for President?"
Trump skipped the first GOP debate and instead opted for an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Clarkson.
Responding to a question on why he skipped the GOP debate, Trump said, "You know a lot of people have been asking me that and many people said you shouldn't do that. But you see, the polls have come out and I am leading by 50 and 60 points. And you know some of them are at one and zero and two... do I need to sit there for an hour or 2 hours, whatever it's going to be and get harassed by people that shouldn't be running for President? Should I be doing that?"
"And a network that isn't particularly friendly to me, frankly you know they were backing Ron Desanctimonious like crazy and now they have given up on him. I mean, it's a lost cause and it reminded me very much of 2016," he added.
The US' former President recalled the 2016 election and said that he went through the same experienc then and had to fight them all the way. He further stated that it would be more appropriate not to do the debate.
"I don't think it's right to do if you are leading by 50 or 60. I have one poll leading by 70 points and I am saying why am I doing it? And I am going to have 8-10 people, whoever made the debate, I don't know how many it is but I am going to have all these people screaming at me, shouting questions at me, all of which I love answering, I love doing but it doesn't make sense to do them So I have taken a pass, as you probably noticed," Trump said in an interview with Clarkson.
Meanwhile, at the GOP debate conducted by Fox News, Vivek Ramaswamy, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Tim Scott, Mike Pence, Doug Burgum, Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson were present.
Indian-American Vivek Ramaswamy, termed the US support for Ukraine, amid the conflict with Russia, as “disastrous” saying that if he is elected President, he would not support an increase in aid to the battle-scarred country, reported CNN.
He added that the resources going to Kyiv should be used domestically, instead.
Notably, 7 of the 8 GOP candidates raised their hands in affirmation to a question from the moderator, Brett Baier of Fox News where he asked if the candidates would support Trump as a presidential candidate even if he is convicted. Asa Hutchinson was the only candidate who did not raise his hand in affirmation.
The interview of Donald Trump with Tucker Carlson has garnered nearly 96 Million views on social media platform X (formerly called Twitter) till now.
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