RNC’s Ronna McDaniel claimed that former President Donald Trump “never shies from a debate,” which elicited a sharp rebuke from Brian Kilmeade, who said, “he does!”
The moment came during McDaniel’s appearance on Fox & Friends Wednesday morning in which Steve Doocy addressed recent comments from Trump that he didn’t get approval on the two Republican debates announced, suggesting that he wouldn’t participate.
McDaniel pushed back on Trump’s claim, first saying she “talked to President Trump all the time, and we’ve talked to all the potential candidates. We’ve let them know the schedule. We’ve announced the debates.” She then noted, “President Trump never shies away from a debate.”
Trump famously skipped the Fox News-hosted GOP primary debate, a fact that Kilmeade was all too eager to note.
Steve Doocy: Going back to the debates. Can I ask you something? So the Democrats don’t want the top Democrats don’t want a debate with Joe on the stage. I saw yesterday that Donald Trump on True Social said, I see that everybody is talking about the Republican debates, but nobody got my approval or the approval of the campaign Trump campaign before announcing them. When you’re leading by seemingly insurmountable numbers and you have hostile networks angry with Trump, Trump and MAGA hating anchors asking the questions, why subject yourself to being libeled and abused? So did you talk to him about the debates? Is he in or is this just what he does? He did this in 2016 working the refs.
Ronna McDaniel: I talked to President Trump all the time and we’ve talked to all the potential candidates. We’ve let them know the schedule. We’ve announced the debates. The first debate is going to be with Fox in Milwaukee. But every campaign and every candidate’s going to have to make a decision. Do I want him to participate? He’s going to have to make that decision. I think he’ll do it. President Trump never shies away from a debate. And while the debate stage is….
Brian Kilmeade: He does! He skipped ours. He skipped ours in 2016.
Ronna McDaniel: He did. He skipped one. But, you know, he was on the center of the debate stage in 2016 and he never left it. So we’ll see what happens. But we are talking to the campaigns and the candidates. I talked to President Trump and and Mike Pence and and Nikki Haley. We’re talking to all of them all the time. And we’ll see what happens. It’s going to be a rollercoaster till August.
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