A vast majority of Republican supporters want former President Donald Trump to appear and participate in the debates, according to the survey that he used this week as justification for skipping the Republican Party primary contests.
In order to justify his decision to forgo participating in the debates, Trump pointed to a CBS News poll that had him at 62%, Gov. Ron DeSantis at 16%, and all other candidates in the single digits.
He also said that he thinks people are already aware of who he is, so he said, “I WON’T BE DOING THE DEBATES!”
Cross-tab analysis of the survey, however, reveals that Trump is supported among likely Republican primary voters.
The following question was posed to prospective GOP primary voters: “Do you believe Donald Trump should take part in the Republican debate?”
73% of the people who answered said he “should” go to the debate, while only 27% said he “shouldn’t.”
Some of the president’s best media friends have pushed him to go, saying that if he becomes the winner, he could hurt himself later by not going.
Steve Doocy, co-host of “Fox & Friends,” claimed this week that by forgoing the debates, Donald Trump “could possibly be benefiting Joe Biden as it gives Joe Biden a justification for failing to debate Donald Trump.”
He said, “That was actually one of the things that Ronna McDaniel explained to the former president while she was attempting to get him to have the first debate. But he replied, nope, I don’t intend to do it.”
Doocy said, “If Donald Trump declares, ‘Everyone knows me, I do not need to engage in it,’ then Joe Biden says, ‘Everyone knows me. I am the president.’”
“Joe Biden would love it if Trump wasn’t going to do it,” he said. “Then he would say, I do not have any reason to do it either, since he didn’t do it.”
