Trump announces Hialeah rally on same night as GOP debate in downtown Miami
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As with the two previous GOP debates, Donald Trump will seek to preempt the Republican presidential face-off in Miami next month with his own split-screen event — a rally in Hialeah.
The competing event, announced Friday, will take place Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. at Ted Hendricks Stadium at Henry Milander Park.
That same night, his GOP rivals will gather in downtown Miami for the Republican National Committee's third presidential debate in partnership with NBC News and the Republican Jewish Coalition.
A statement Monday by the RNC said the encounter among White House hopefuls will take place at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts and will also be carried by Salem Radio Network and Rumble, which will handle livestream and online content.
The arts center is about 11 miles from Trump's planned rally in Hialeah.
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The RNC has not released the official slate of candidates that will be on the Miami stage, but Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy are expected to qualify.
Trump skipped the previous two debates and has derided them in speeches and social media. He has also attempted to distract attention.
Ahead of the Milwaukee debate in August, Trump did a prerecorded interview with fired Fox News personality Tucker Carlson. And while his GOP rivals gathered at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum in California a month later, Trump spoke in Michigan.
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In the last days of the 2020 presidential campaign, then-President Trump held a rally at Amelia Earhart Park in Hialeah.
Following last month's debate in California, Trump's campaign issued a statement saying "these primary debates are a waste of time" and called on party officials to stop focusing "on this distraction" and "unite" around Trump as the party's candidate.
Last week, in a speech to Club 47 USA in West Palm Beach, Trump ridiculed the debates, saying they suffered from low public interest and ratings. Speaking Monday in Clive, Iowa, Trump again made fun of them, citing a Morning Consult poll from this month showing him with a 49-point lead over second-place DeSantis.
Despite Trump's call, the RNC went ahead with plans for the third debate.
"The partners for our third debate will offer our candidates an excellent opportunity to meet the moment and contrast their plans and vision with the failures of the Biden White House,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement.
Antonio Fins is a politics and business editor at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at afins@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Trump and GOP debate: He'll likely skip it for his own Miami rally
