Opinion

Former President Donald Trump drew much criticism for deciding not to attend the first Republican presidential debate Wednesday night. Instead, he opted to do an interview with Tucker Carlson. After watching the debate and Trump’s interview with Carlson, one thing was certainly clear: Trump should have participated in the debate. His interview with Carlson was pointless.

The reality of the Republican debate is that without former President Donald Trump polluting it with his 2020 election lies,this Republican field is substantively strong.

The pre-debate hype for Vivek Ramaswamy while people prepared their obituaries for Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) was always disconnected from a central fact: Having a conservative record and real principles matters more than showmanship.

The first substantive issue on which Republican candidates disagreed in the first GOP debate was abortion. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and current Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND) opposed a 15-week abortion ban on the federal level, while former Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) supported it.

Of the eight Republican presidential candidates who dared who participate in the first primary debate, only three seemed to understand that the dominant issue of the 2024 election is the cataclysmic state of the economy.

There are a thousand reasons to be wary of the state and federal indictments of President Donald Trump. When asked about these indictments and when asked about Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, most Republican candidates avoided the question and instead ran to condemn the politicized Department of Justice under President Joe Biden.

When asked at the first Republican presidential debate if he believes in anthropogenic climate change, Vivek Ramaswamy called the phenomenon a hoax, accusing the rest of his competitors of being "bought and paid for." Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) decided to take a different tact.