The former president was not in attendance in Miami, Florida, on Wednesday, but candidates still mentioned his name throughout the night.
Donald Trump again chose to skip the Republican presidential primary debate, hosted Wednesday in Miami, Florida, but as the front-runner for the GOP nomination, the former president’s name was mentioned throughout the night.
According to polling data compiled by FiveThirtyEight, as of Tuesday, Trump was leading the GOP primary race on average by over 42 points. The runner-up is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who across national polling is averaging at about 13.9 percent. Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley is next in line, earning 9 percent of voters’ support.
Other candidates who spoke from the stage Wednesday during the third GOP debate were former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and all five participants took turns directing attacks at each another. But moderators opened the event by asking each candidate why they deserved voters’ support over Trump, and nearly all of those on stage seized the opportunity to criticize the former president.
DeSantis and Haley, however, offered the most criticism of the former president’s administration.
DeSantis was handed the first question of Wednesday’s debate, which asked candidates to explain why voters should look to them over Trump for the 2024 election. The Florida leader—once an ally of the former president who is now often the target of attacks by Trump—said that the former president was « a lot different guy than he was in 2016 » when he won the presidential race.
« He owes it to you to be on this stage and explain why he should get another chance, » DeSantis continued. « He should explain why he didn’t have Mexico pay for the border wall. He should explain why he racked up so much debt. He should explain why he didn’t drain the swamp. And he said Republicans were going to get tired of winning. Well, we saw last night. I’m sick of Republicans losing. »
Tuesday’s election proved to be wildly disappointing for the GOP across state and local races.
