Former US President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media after testifying in his civil fraud trial at the New York State Supreme Court in New York City on 6 November 2023. A combative Donald Trump clashed repeatedly with the judge on 6 November 2023 as he took the stand in the New York civil fraud case threatening to cripple his real estate empire. One year out from an election he hopes will return him to the White House, Trump became the first former US president to testify as a defendant in a court case in more than a century.
- Donald Trump is again
skipping a Republican presidential candidate debate, instead holding a rally
nearby. - Polls suggest he has a significant lead among
Republican voters, with the primary races beginning on 15 January. - The remaining five candidates will debate in
Miami, with Trump’s absence once again overshadowing the event.
Republican
candidates will gather in Miami Wednesday as they vie to become their party’s
nominee for the 2024 presidential election – once again without front-runner
Donald Trump.
The
ex-president, who leads the race by leaps and bounds, will skip the affair
entirely and instead hold a rally nearby for supporters.
As with the
last two debates, the real estate mogul says he has no need for the publicity
given his large lead among his fellow Republicans.
Polling
suggests he would receive a whopping 58 percent of the Republican primary vote,
crushing opponents thanks to a large and loyal base which has stuck by his side
through two impeachments, multiple indictments and a variety of other scandals.
Primary
races begin on 15 January, with the eventual winner to face off against the
Democratic candidate – almost certainly President Joe Biden – in next
November’s presidential election.
The Trump show
The
77-year-old Trump’s alternate event, a major campaign rally, will be held just
outside Miami, 18 kilometres from the NBC set where the debate will be
broadcast.
The five
debating Republicans have been forced to grapple with a now all-too-familiar
question: how to make a splash while Trump sucks up all the oxygen – and media
attention – out of the room?
Florida
Governor Ron DeSantis was once seen as the next generation of the Republican
Party, but his ratings have plummeted.
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The
45-year-old, whose positions on abortion, LGBTQ rights and immigration
catapulted him into the spotlight, now lags behind Trump by nearly 45
percentage points, according to polling aggregator RealClearPolitics.
‘Unwavering’ support for Israel
Former UN
ambassador Nikki Haley stands in third place for the moment, hovering at around
nine percent in polls. The 51-year-old’s diplomatic experience and more
centrist stance on abortion garnered attention in previous debates.
Those
broadcasts, which included up to eight people on stage, at times became
cacophonous and rancorous.
With fewer
candidates debating this time, Vivek Ramaswamy, polling in fourth place, told
AFP he was “hopeful the debate will be more productive.”
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Senator Tim
Scott and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, notable as one of the few
candidates to have openly criticised Trump, fill out the evening’s lineup.
The
Republican Party organised the debate in partnership with the Republican Jewish
Coalition, an influential conservative group.
It is a
way, Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said, for the
party to show its “unwavering support of Israel and the Jewish
community” amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.