'That would be the dumbest thing': Trump Jr. defends father's decision to skip Milwaukee GOP debate
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Eight Republican candidates for president hope to boost their standing in the first GOP debate Wednesday night at Fiserv Forum, but the clear frontrunner in the GOP primary isn't one of them.
However, those closest to former President Donald Trump are in Milwaukee this week. They told CBS 58 there was no good reason for Trump, himself, to be here.
On his way into the arena, Donald Trump Jr. displayed the type of bluster his dad often displays. Trump Jr. said it would be "the dumbest thing" for his dad to take part in the debate.
"You look at the clown show that's going on, you don't really expect someone with a 60-point lead to give someone with 0.2% three hours of unfettered access, right?" Trump Jr. said. "That would be the dumbest thing anyone would ever do, and Trump's not dumb."
According to a CBS News/YouGov poll taken last week, Trump has a 46-point lead over his next closest competitor.
Among likely Republican voters, 62% of respondents favored Trump while 16% said they were backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy was in third place with the support of 7%.
.@DonaldJTrumpJr says it would be “the dumbest thing” if Donald Trump participated in tonight’s debate given his big lead in the polls.
— Emilee Fannon (@Emilee_Fannon) August 23, 2023
“Trumps not dumb,” he said. pic.twitter.com/juIPyNAnLY
Former RNC Chairman Reince Priebus told reporters Wednesday he also believes Trump is avoiding the debate in an effort to take the spotlight away from the candidates who are taking the stage.
"Yeah, I would've loved President Trump to be here," Priebus said. "I mean, just for pure entertainment value, it'd be great to have the president on stage tonight, but he makes his own decisions on his campaign. I understand it; I mean, 40 points ahead? It's a tough call, right?"
While Trump has publicly bristled at the idea of signing a pledge to support whomever the eventual nominee is, Priebus said Trump did agree to a loyalty pledge, as it's in some of RNC fine print Trump did sign.
"President Trump signed the data sharing agreement with the RNC, and in the data agreement there is a loyalty pledge," Priebus said.
Other Wisconsin Republicans said, in some ways, it's a positive Donald Trump isn't taking part in the debate.
Waukesha County Executive Paul Farrow said without Trump, it'll be easier to hear more specific ideas from the candidates and, ideally, fewer attacks.
"Because Trump's not here, I think their voices are gonna be heard," Farrow said. "[Trump's] approach is to be more personalized and kind of attack people individually, instead of talking about policy."
Still, Farrow says he would like to see Trump more publicly vow to support Republicans across the board. Farrow noted he'd voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020, but hesitated when asked if he'd vow to back Trump next year should he win the nomination.
"Jury's out right now," Farrow said of how he plans to vote. "I'd have to see how he presents himself over the next couple of months."