Sunday Show Smackdown: Trump Implies He Won't Debate, DeSantis Hits Him on the Issues

Former President Donald Trump appeared on “Sunday Morning Futures” with Maria Bartiromo and strongly implied he will not participate in any upcoming GOP debates. The frontrunner for the Republican 2024 nomination also made sure to get in a few digs at the man running at number two in the polls, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Trump admitted in his Saturday night speech at the Turning Point Action Conference in West Palm Beach, Florida, that he took DeSantis’ decision to run personally because he felt he had saved his first campaign for governor in 2018 by endorsing him.

Bartiromo asked whether he would debate. Trump:

It’s a quite an easy question, normally. Ronald Reagan didn’t do it and a lot of other people didn’t do it. When you have a big lead, you don’t do it. And we have a lead of 50 and 60 points in some cases and some of these people are at zero.

Then he took his shot at DeSantis, who’s running a distant second in the polls:

Ron DeSanctis, as I call him, or DeSanctimonious, is down to… He’s in the teens now and I’m at 50 and 60 and 65. And even I saw one today at 70. And so you’re leading people by 50 and 60 points and you say, why would you be doing a debate?…

Why would you let somebody that’s at zero, or one or two or three, you know, be popping you with questions?

Trump strongly suggests to Maria Bartiromo that he will not participate in the first GOP debate pic.twitter.com/3l3Xpc8mT6

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 16, 2023

Bartiromo asked him if he worries that DeSantis might have a good debate and attract more voters. Trump responded that DeSantis is actually losing ground, so what’s there to worry about?

Or somebody else has a good night and cuts into his lead, because that’s what’s happening. He’s going down and couple of them are going up.

I think Vivek has done a very good job, frankly. I think some others have done a good job, so I haven’t really made up my mind.

Sounds like Vivek Ramaswamy is in a good position to nab a cabinet position if Trump is elected again.

DeSantis, meanwhile, appeared on Fox News’ “Media Buzz” with anchor Howard Kurtz and criticized Trump for not delivering on his promises during his presidency and for his failure to drain the swamp. It’s the strongest direct attack I’ve seen from him yet:

Substantively, we’ve been very frank at our differences with respect to the former president. I mean, for example, he promised to drain the swamp. It got worse. He did not drain the swamp.

He promised to… have Mexico pay for a border wall. They did like 50 miles of wall. There’s massive, expanses still there.

He said he was going to eliminate the national debt. They added almost $8 trillion to the debt in four years and of course in 2020, he turned the country over to Doctor Fauci and those lockdowns and the borrowing and printing really sent us on a bad course.

I’ve been very, very frank at [sic] that, but I have no interest in attacking Donald Trump or any of these other candidates personally.

I think we’ve got to rise above that and let’s focus on the issues.

Ron DeSantis torches Donald Trump on policy:

"He promised to drain the swamp. It got worse. He did not drain the swamp. He promised to have the Mexico pay for a border wall. They did, like, 50 miles of wall. There's massive expanses still there. He said he was going to… pic.twitter.com/w3KviDc2D5

— Scott Morefield (@SKMorefield) July 16, 2023

DeSantis has some fertile ground with Trump’s COVID response, and I think that line of criticism will resonate with some voters. So too, with his critique of Trump’s inability to fully drain the swamp. On the border wall, however, his claims aren’t as strong: Trump was able to get almost 500 miles of walls built despite intense Democrat opposition. There would be even more, but one of the first things Biden did upon taking office was to unceremoniously shut the whole operation down.

I can’t argue with Trump’s logic that he has little to gain from a debate when he’s so far ahead in the polls. It’d be a shame if he skipped them, though, because I would really like to see these guys go toe to toe. They’re both smart and quick on their feet, and now DeSantis is ramping up his critiques.

It’s in the public interest for DJT to face people “popping him with questions” so he’s prepared for battle if and when he is our nominee. “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” We need our best in the ring in November 2024.