Donald Trump doesn’t want to sign RNC’s pledge, may miss debates
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Former President Donald Trump said in a recent interview that he wasn’t willing to comply with the final requirement set for Republican presidential candidates to participate in the upcoming first debate, while Pence makes his criticism of Trump over the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 the forefront of his campaign.
“I wouldn’t sign the pledge,” Trump told Newsmax, referring to the commitment that requires 2024 GOP hopefuls to support the ultimate Republican nominee. “Why would I sign a pledge if there are people on there that I wouldn’t have?”
“You look at the debate, and they want you to debate, but you’re debating — it’s not really fair — somebody like Asa Hutchinson, who’s polling at zero percent, will ask me nasty questions,” Trump said. “Somebody like Chris Christie is falling at 1%, and he’s going to ask me nasty questions and others, too.”
The Republican National Committee (RNC) said the first debate will take place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Aug. 23. RNC chair Ronna McDaniel said in an interview last month that “the pledge is staying and anybody who wants to seek the nomination of our party should pledge to support the voters.”
If Trump doesn’t sign the pledge, it will be unlikely that he debates other GOP candidates — but he pointed out that he wouldn’t be the first presidential candidate to skip out.
“But why would you do that when you’re leading by so much?” Trump asked in the interview. “Ronald Reagan didn’t do it. (Richard) Nixon didn’t do it. Many people didn’t do it.”
Still, Trump said he would take the debates “very seriously.”
“I’ve actually gotten very good marks on debating talents,” he said. “But you want to be, you know, they want a smart president. They want somebody that’s going to be smart. So we have to do the smart thing.”
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In addition to signing the pledge, the RNC also requires Republican candidates to poll at least 1% in multiple national or state surveys and have at least 40,000 unique donors to participate in the debates.
The Associated Press reported there are eight qualified candidates, including Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, and former Vice President Mike Pence.
Pence’s campaign reached the target of 40,000 unique donors earlier this week, as Fox News reported. His campaign team said they were the first to start the verification process with RNC.
Pence has faced months of low polling numbers, but now he’s hoping for a bump over Trump’s third indictment, which alleges he was involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
The indictment states that Pence did not leave during the attack on the Capitol, despite requests from the Secret Service, and he certified the election results the day after.
A day after the indictment was released, Pence said: “I can’t really speak to the legal arguments behind it, but I think the American people deserve to know that on that day, the president asked me to choose between him and the Constitution, and I chose the Constitution, and I always will.”
Meanwhile, his campaign began selling T-shirts and hats with the phrase “Too Honest,” which Trump used to describe Pence after he refused to block the votes of the 2020 presidential election, as Deseret News reported.
Pence reaffirmed his stance about his role on Jan. 6. at the state fair in Des Moines, Iowa, Thursday.
“There’s almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could pick the American president,” Pence said. “The American presidency belongs to the American people.”
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