Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley is planning to skip the upcoming Republican presidential debates in New Hampshire until former President Donald Trump shows up to the forums.
Haley lobbed the challenge at the former president Tuesday after finishing third in the Iowa Caucus, behind Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and frontrunner Trump, who received 51 percent of the vote. ABC News is partnering with WMUR-TV, a local station, to host the next debate Jan. 18 and CNN is set to hold their second debate on Jan. 21. DeSantis indicated before Haley’s challenge that he would participate in the New Hampshire debates.
“We’ve had five great debates in this campaign,” Haley said in a Tuesday press release. “Unfortunately, Donald Trump has ducked all of them. He has nowhere left to hide. The next debate I do will either be with Donald Trump or with Joe Biden. I look forward to it.”
In New Hampshire, Haley recently cut Trump’s lead to single digits for the first time in the race, as the former president leads by 7 points.
News: Haley says she won’t do either NH debate unless Trump participates
(DeSantis said he’d participate) pic.twitter.com/etEu89kq1w— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) January 16, 2024
CNN and ABC News announced their plans to host debates Dec. 7 in New Hampshire after reports that the Republican National Committee (RNC) would lift a rule to allow candidates to participate in non-party-sanctioned events. The RNC decided Dec. 9 to pause its participation in the Republican presidential debates while also freeing candidates to take part in non-GOP-sanctioned events. (RELATED: Vivek Goes Scorched Earth On CNN, Claims He’s Skipping Their Debate Over ‘Shenanigans’)
CNN hosted the first event in Iowa after the RNC bowed out, setting the toughest qualification standards of the debates in the 2024 election cycle. For the debate prior to the Iowa caucus, presidential candidates needed to poll at least 10 percent in three separate national or Iowa surveys that meet CNN’s standards, the announcement reads. Only three candidates — Trump, DeSantis and Haley — met the qualification standards and only the Florida governor and former U.N. ambassador chose to show. (RELATED: Haley And DeSantis Bicker For 2 Hours, And Everybody Seemed To Hate It)
Republican presidential candidates Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley participate in the CNN Republican Presidential Primary Debate in Sheslow Auditorium at Drake University on January 10, 2024 in Des Moines, Iowa. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The former president has skipped all five Republican presidential debates, four of which were hosted by the RNC. The former president opted to meet with union workers, host rallies and participate in a townhall with Fox News. Trump previously told the Daily Caller that the RNC should cancel all debates, arguing that the party has been unable to “do their job.”
While the former president looks likely to face President Joe Biden, Trump, 77 years old, is openly lobbing up debate challenges to the 81-year-old president, whose campaign did not indicate to the Daily Caller if he would participate.
“President Trump looks forward to debating Crooked Joe Biden next fall,” a senior Trump aide told the Daily Caller. “The real question is whether or not Joe will debate President Trump. Specific to the Presidential Debate Commission, the campaign has not yet accepted the suggested terms made recently.”
Moderators Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier host a Fox News Town Hall with Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump on January 10, 2024 in Des Moines, Iowa. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
While Trump leads other Republican presidential candidates, he also leads Biden in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup. Across key swing states, Trump is leading the president by as much as nine points in Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada and North Carolina. (RELATED: It’s Not Even An Election Year But The Clock Is Already Ticking For Joe Biden)