ABC News cancels Republican debate after Haley opted out unless Trump participates

ABC News announced the cancelation of the next Republican debate after Nikki Haley opted out of the event unless former President Donald Trump agreed to participate.

The only three candidates that were qualified to participate in ABC’s debate were Trump, Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. 

“We’ve had five great debates in this campaign,” Haley said in a statement, released as she campaigned in New Hampshire. “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.”

Haley made the statement following the Iowa Caucuses, which Trump won after separating himself from the other candidates by a wide margin.

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DeSantis and Haley had a heated competition for second place in Iowa, in which Haley attempted to make her argument more about Trump than DeSantis.

The former South Carolina governor’s move also could be the result of the last debate she had with DeSantis, in which Haley did not perform as well as expected, The Associated Press reported, leading to DeSantis walking away from Iowa in second place.

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“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,” an ABC News spokesperson said in a statement.

Whether Haley’s decision to only debate if Trump participates will affect CNN’s scheduled debate on Sunday remains to be seen.

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“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,” DeSantis wrote on X. “The reality is that she is not running for the nomination, she’s running to be Trump’s VP. 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.”

 

Last Week, Haley went head-to-head with DeSantis in a two-hour debate. During the debate, Haley mentioned a campaign-run website more than a dozen times and turned to name-calling, which some caucusgoers claimed was off-putting.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.