The GOP Challengers All Share a Game Plan
What is going on with the several Republican candidates who met at the Reagan Presidential Library for the second GOP debate? The debate itself was a spirited affair, but not in a good way. The candidates aggressively interrupted one another. At one point, all seven were shouting something. It was impossible to hear what.
The Republican field of challengers is narrowing. When the next GOP debate takes place on November 8 in Miami, Florida, two or three more candidates will have dropped out. A stage with only DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Chris Christie is my guess. But does it really matter? The nomination is Trump’s unless “something dramatic” happens. And, given recent history, that is not a given despite the ex-president’s deepening legal and business problems and signs that some Republicans may be thinking about moving on from him.
The September 27 debate was described as an audition for vice president, but I doubt whether most of the candidates want to run with Trump. Instead, all the candidates are in the race in the hope that Trump will drop out. None of the candidates has a chance as long as Trump is around. Thus, the candidates and their supporters want to be at the right place at the right time in case Trump’s political career ends.
The debate this week was remarkable not only because Trump again was absent but because earlier in the week a New York judge determined that Trump had engaged in “rampant fraud.” A few candidates criticized Trump for not participating in the debate (Christie dubbed Trump “Donald Duck”), but the others ignored him altogether. If there was a reference to the 91 felony charges pending against Trump, I missed it. Similarly, nobody suggested that a man facing jail time should not be running for president.
Ramaswamy, in particular, is maneuvering to substitute for Trump if Trump is unable to continue his campaign. Ramaswamy called him a “great president” and emphasized he is ready to assume the leadership of the MAGA movement. In response to a few questions, Mike Pence bragged about the accomplishments of the Trump presidency without mentioning…
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