There will be no more Republican presidential debates ahead of the New Hampshire primary next Tuesday.
CNN joined ABC on Wednesday morning pulling the plug on its debate between Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis after the former insisted she would not participate unless Donald Trump is present.
“We will continue to pursue other opportunities as the campaign season progresses through 2024,” a CNN spokesperson told the Washington Post. The event was originally scheduled for this coming Sunday.
“We’ve had five great debates in this campaign. Unfortunately, Donald Trump has ducked all of them. He has nowhere left to hide,” Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, wrote on X on Tuesday morning. “The next debate I do will either be with Donald Trump or with Joe Biden. I look forward to it.”
Meanwhile, DeSantis relished the opportunity to underscore his continued willingness to engage by taking a shot at Haley, calling her “afraid to participate in the remaining debates.” “I won’t snub New Hampshire voters like both Nikki Haley and Donald Trump, and plan to honor my commitments. I look forward to debating two empty podiums in the Granite State this week,” DeSantis wrote on X.
On Tuesday, ABC announced the cancellation of their Thursday night debate between the Republican presidential contenders following Haley’s demand.
“Our intent was to host a debate coming out of the Iowa caucuses, but we always knew that would be contingent on the candidates and the outcome of the race,” a spokesperson for ABC News told Semafor in a statement. “As a result, while our robust election coverage will continue, ABC News and WMUR-TV will not be moving forward with Thursday’s Republican presidential primary debate in New Hampshire.”
Haley bowed out of the primary debates in New Hampshire the morning after she finished third place in the Iowa caucuses. She announced the news on social media, saying the next time she debates she will be on stage beside either Biden or Trump, who has skipped all five Republican primary debates.
Without mentioning DeSantis in her speech Monday night, Haley cast the current state of the Republican primaries as a “two-person race” seemingly between herself and Trump. DeSantis came in second place.
“I can safely say tonight Iowa made this Republican primary a two-person race,” she told her supporters at the caucus site in Des Moines, Iowa. “Tonight, I will be back in the great state of New Hampshire, and the question before Americans is now very clear: Do you want more of the same, or do you want a new generation of conservative leadership?”
Haley kept attacking Trump during the speech, saying the majority of Americans “don’t want another Trump–Biden rematch” partly because of their ages. Trump is 77 years old, while Biden is 81.
“They have more in common than you think,” she continued. “Trump and Biden both put our country trillions of dollars deeper in debt, and our kids will never forgive them for it. Trump and Biden both lack a vision for our country’s future because both are consumed by the past, by investigations, by vendettas, by grievances. America deserves better.”
Thank you, Iowa! You’re faithful, patriotic & hardworking, and I’m grateful to each of you!
Now it’s on to New Hampshire, where this campaign is the last best hope of stopping the Trump-Biden rematch that no one wants.
We offer America a better choice. pic.twitter.com/Uux19IsX2c
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) January 16, 2024
Following the Tuesday morning announcement, DeSantis fired back at Haley for skipping the debates and suggested “she’s running to be Trump’s VP” rather than vying for the Republican nomination.
“Nikki Haley is afraid to debate because she doesn’t want to answer the tough questions such as how she got rich off Boeing after giving them millions in taxpayer handouts as governor of South Carolina,” the Florida governor posted on X. “I won’t snub New Hampshire voters like both Nikki Haley and Donald Trump, and plan to honor my commitments. I look forward to debating two empty podiums in the Granite State this week.”
The two GOP New Hampshire debates were scheduled for Thursday and Sunday, just days after the Iowa caucuses. The Granite State’s first-in-the-nation primary will take place next Tuesday.
Haley received just over 19 percent of the Iowa caucus votes on Monday night, closely falling behind DeSantis at roughly 21 percent. Trump was the clear front-runner, coming in at 51 percent.