It is the first major meeting of the 2024 US election: The Republican presidential candidates began debating on Wednesday, without the favorite Donald Trump, who is keen to play the spoilsport.
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Eight candidates for the White House will debate this two-hour Fox News program, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is keen to catch up with the former president in the polls.
Donald Trump has chosen to reject this meeting, organized in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, because of his very large lead in the Republican opinion polls.
It’s a paradox: prosecuted four times in less than six months, the ex-boss momentarily annihilates all competition in the race for the nomination.
Each twist in his long legal saga earns him millions of dollars in donations, paid by Trumpists who believe the 70-year-old is the victim of a “witch hunt.”
How can you create tension in the first pre-election debate when the favorite isn’t there?
That’s the challenge for Fox News, whose relationship with Donald Trump has deteriorated sharply in recent months, and for the former real estate magnate’s rivals in particular.
They all struggle to exist in a political and media universe revolving solely around the former president’s legal backlash.
Starting with Ron DeSantis, who is currently runner-up in the polls but whose status as a rising star of the far right has come under severe scrutiny in recent weeks.
Or former Vice President Mike Pence, who, after years of unwavering loyalty to Donald Trump, changed his mind after the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
Other candidates who are relatively unknown to the general public and possible contenders for the vice presidential post – Vivek Ramaswamy, Tim Scott or Nikki Haley – will also be looking for their moment of glory.
But the equation is all the more dangerous given that Donald Trump himself has decided to undertake counter-programming.
The former president, who was willing to provoke, gave an interview to former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson, which will be aired to coincide with the debate on X (ex-Twitter).
“It will sparkle. Enjoy!” he prophesied on his Truth social network.
Illustration of the hilarious campaign starring the former reality TV star: Donald Trump will travel to Atlanta the next day to surrender himself to Georgia state authorities, where he is accused of attempting to to reverse the result of the election campaign presidential election 2020.
In practice, Mr. Trump is formally arrested. Authorities in this southeastern state should then take his forensic photo, the famous “mug shot,” with potentially notorious effect on the Republican candidate.
He will then come out free.
Several photos of his co-defendants, including that of his ex-lawyer Rudy Giuliani, were published on Wednesday evening and made headlines on social networks.
However, among those watching the Fox News debate — the first major gathering of the campaign — is Democratic President Joe Biden.
The 80-year-old leader and candidate for re-election will, barring a major surprise, face the winner of that Republican primary in the US presidential election on November 5, 2024.
And he himself accelerated the pace of his election campaign: Shortly before the broadcast of Fox News, the Conservatives’ favorite channel, a commercial promoting his candidacy was aired.
Will there be a repeat of the 2020 election in America? Donald Trump is already projecting himself into the game. With no evidence, he accused the current president of dictating his legal troubles, and endowed him with one of his famous nicknames: “Joe-la-Crapule”.
The democratic president is careful not to comment on the serial charges against his rival, so as not to fuel accusations of instrumentalization of the judiciary.