Writing — Politics & Current Culture

Donald Trump Is Declared the Winner of the First GOP Debate, Even Though He Never Even Attended

Just how does this stuff happen?

One of the truest things anyone can probably say of former President Donald Trump, is that he never fails to completely floor us all. And this time, at least, he didn’t even have to do a single thing to pull it off.

On Wednesday, August 23rd, the first debate of the 2024 GOP primary race for President of the United States was held in Milwaukee. Trump shocked no one by saying he’d skip it.

What did end up shocking many of us though, including me, is that he would be declared the winner of the debate by multiple sources, even though he wasn’t even there.

As Aaron Blake with The Washington Post declared:

“It could scarcely have turned out better for the absentee front-runner.”

Former White House official and CNN political commentator David Axelrod agreed, saying:

“And the winner was… the man who wasn’t there.”

Divisive journalist Megyn Kelly echoed what many others identified as a rather dismal performance by the eight additional candidates vying for the Republican nomination.

As she commented on X/Twitter:

“With no clear winner, the winner was Trump. Nothing happened to change the dynamic of this race tonight.”

Even Katie Couric said on X/Twitter:

“The audience seems to be a hardcore MAGA crowd.”

Additional people and sources who have identified Trump’s clear advantage coming off the debate he chose to skip include commentators from the Los Angeles Times, POLITICO, Newsweek, Vox as well as former Georgia congressman Doug Collins and CNN political columnist Roxanne Jones.

To be fair though, many others have instead singled out former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley or businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, both of whom actually showed up, as the winner of the debate, while still others have said the whole thing made President Joe Biden appear to be the best candidate going forward.

However, Trump certainly has the latest poll numbers on his side in comparison to his fellow 2024 Republican presidential rivals, all of whom seemed to have picked up little to no momentum from the debate, at least as far as poll number show.

What Trump did instead

Then again, perhaps it’s not fair to say Trump did nothing at all.

The 2024 presidential return hopeful did appear in an instantaneously infamous interview with Tucker Carlson, where he spoke about such issues as: immigration and border control, the war between Russia and Ukraine, how best to maintain control over the FBI and CIA, the events of January 6th, his continued belief that the 2020 election was rigged and his purported coining of the term “fake news.”

Carlson, who was abruptly dismissed from FOX earlier this year, now hosts his own show on X/Twitter.

He’s long been an ardent supporter of the former president, and so there would be good reason for Trump to choose this platform over the debate — answering the softest of softball questions tossed at him by Carlson is far better than being hurled into the ring with the wolves, who would have been ready to tear him apart, just like his biggest critic, Chris Christie.

With Carlson as his lone interviewer, Trump can set sail all the nasty insults he can possibly muster and not have anyone to call him out on it.

Far from it, many times in the interview when Trump would say something particularly barbarous and cutting, Carlson would merely lend a nice hearty chuckle or even a few words of agreement and encouragement.

Like, for instance, when he said he was retiring the word crooked to be used when referring to his 2016 rival, Hillary Clinton, and was now using the term for President Joe Biden.

Or, when he chose to rip apart both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at the same time:

Trump:

She has some bad moments. Her moments are almost as bad as his. I think his are worse actually.”

Carlson:

Yeah, she seems pretty senile, too.”

Earlier in the interview he takes several digs at Biden’s age and alleged failing health:

“He can’t lift his feet out of the grass … looks like he’s walking on toothpicks and then you see him at the beach where he can’t lift a chair … he can’t walk to the chair … I think he looks terrible at the beach … he can’t walk through the sand.”

Keep in mind Trump is younger than Biden by a mere three years and some change.

Arguably, perhaps the best question Carlson asked of the former president was:

“How do you get indicted every week and stay cheerful?”

Great question. To which Trump answered:

“It’s a lot easier because I’m so high in the polls. It means the people get it. The people see it’s a fraud.”

And indeed, astonishingly enough, he has been polling amazingly well all along.

How does he continue to pull it off?

Being declared the winner of a debate he didn’t even attend? Few candidates could probably get away with it, especially amidst all of the many indictments he’s now facing.

Participating in high profile debates, such as the one Trump chose to skip, has become the norm for candidates in the last several decades.

And so, a question many of us continue to pose is:

Just how is Trump able to consistently pull off the unthinkable and still maintain such popularity amongst so many people in the U.S.?

For a recap on some of Trump’s most controversial actions, check out my popular NewsBreak article on this subject or any of these interesting articles:

• CNN’s “Chronicling Trump’s 10 worst abuses of power” by Marshall Cohen.
• In the interest of fairness, there is this Fox News article detailing many of Trump’s greatest accomplishments as president: “Deroy Murdock: Final, fair look at Trump presidency shows abundant policy victories.”
• POLITICO offered a piece that’s a bit more middle ground: “30 Things Donald Trump Did as President You Might Have Missed”.

Closing thoughts

What do you think about Trump skipping the debate and his overall viability in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election?

After all, many people have said that while they do not like many of his actions, they do care deeply about his policies.

Might mean little, though, if he ends up in serious hot water resulting from any of his existing litigations.

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