Former President Donald Trump skipped the third Republican presidential debate on Wednesday night – declaring it “invisible” to his own audience and criticizing his party for pushing “weak and ineffective RINOS.”
Trump singled out only two of his Republican rivals, Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley, but didn’t mention them until deep into his remarks.
“Do you think we did the right thing by not participating?” he asked a crowd of supporters.
“Listen, I’m standing in front of tens of thousands of people right now and it’s on TV.” “This is a lot harder than a debate,” he said.
The former president, who still dominated his rivals in the primaries, chose not to participate in the election defeat in Miami, where Vivek Ramaswamy compared DeSantis to “Dick Cheney in three-inch heels” and Haley pointed to a string of election losses Republicans in the Trump era pointed out.
As with previous events, his rivals spent much of their event chasing each other rather than the dominant leader – even when asked about him directly.
Former President Donald Trump mocked his Republican rivals as they attended a presidential debate in Miami. Instead, he spoke to supporters at an outdoor rally
Trump called Haley a “birdbrain” and DeSantis a “Rhonda Sanctimonious” and announced, according to one poll, that he would lead Joe Biden in swing states (the only battleground in the New York Times poll where Biden led him). disregarded – Wisconsin).
“Stop wasting time and resources pushing weak and ineffective RINOS,” Trump complained as his rivals fought among themselves.
Trump spoke to a few thousand supporters at Ted Hendricks Stadium, who cheered as he railed against “radical left-wing Democratic communists” and repeated his claims of a “stolen” election.
He mentioned his four criminal complaints, which resulted in 91 charges.
“They accused me, can you believe that?” “My father and mother are looking down, how did this happen?” he said.
“Even this stupid trial going on in New York,” Trump said on a day when daughter Ivanka Trump took the stand in his $250 million fraud trial.
Trump, who regularly complains about 2020, was briefly nostalgic about his stunning victory in 2016, which came on November 8 of that year.
He saved his angriest rhetoric for President Biden and the Democrats.
Trump again vowed to overhaul the Justice Department and use executive power to crack down on his rivals.
“I will completely wipe out the Deep State,” he vowed. “We will begin exposing every last crime committed by the corrupt Joe Biden, because now that he has impeached me, we get to look at him,” he said on a day when House Republicans included Hunter Biden and James Biden had summoned.
Special Counsel Jack Smith disputed Trump’s claims of political persecution in a filing in Trump’s case dated Jan. 6 this week.
Trump also called out notable figures he said were in the crowd.
They were Israeli-American billionaire Ike Perlmutter, mixed martial arts fighter Jorge Masvidal, conservative journalist Laura Loomer, longtime adviser and pardon recipient Roger Stone, Senate candidate and losing candidate for Arizona governor Kari Lake , as well as Cuban-American Yankee pitcher Nestor Cortés.
His former White House press secretary, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, praised him before Trump spoke.
Trump has repeatedly described the debates as a B-list affair – although rivals Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley were ready to throw a few barbs at him and each other.
Also on stage will be entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, Senator Tim Scott and Chris Christie.
They were the candidates who met the donor and voting criteria to participate in the third debate and signed the pledge of allegiance required for the debate.
Trump leads DeSantis in the latest national CNN poll with 44 percent, Haley has 10 percent.
Trump’s son Don Jr. helped warm up the crowd as his sister Ivanka testified at Trump’s New York fraud trial.
Trump called out “vicious opponents” and vowed to take action against President Biden if elected. “After he accuses me, we get to look at him,” he said
Trump rallied his supporters while his rivals debated
Comedian Roseanne Barr said there are “prisoners in our country whose minds have been stolen by this terrible regime.”
Kimberly Guilfoyle, Donald Trump Jr.’s fiancée, gave opening remarks
Donald Trump Jr. attacked “anti-Semites who chanted genocide at some of the country’s top universities.”
Proud Boy leader Enrique Tarrio was convicted of seditious conspiracy in May 2023, although he was not present at the Capitol insurrection
Biden’s campaign team made an unusual statement after Trump repeated his election claims.
“Donald Trump lost,” the statement’s headline read.
Biden campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa said: “Joe Biden beat Donald Trump by 7 million votes in 2020, and the former president continues to lie about it instead of admitting he lost – like an adult.” It would be sad if it didn’t would be dangerous. And today he said again that he would release from prison the people who violently attacked police officers and tried to overturn the 2020 election if re-elected. “The dangerous and unpredictable ramblings of a loser who cannot accept defeat only underscores that Donald Trump is unfit to be president of the United States,” he said.