Wednesday’s Republican presidential debate at Fiserv Forum was a little like a Milwaukee Bucks game without Giannis Antetokounmpo – the biggest attraction was missing.
Former President Donald Trump opted to skip what was the first presidential debate ahead of the 2024 election.
Eight candidates participated: Governors Doug Burgum of North Dakota and Ron DeSantis of Florida; former Governors Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, Chris Christie of New Jersey and Nikki Haley of South Carolina; former Vice President Mike Pence; tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy; and U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina.
But it was not a Trump-less night.
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Shortly after the debate, Donald Trump Jr. made his way through the Bucks players’ parking garage, which had been converted into a media center, with TV monitors, tables and chairs. Burgundy carpeting covered the concrete floor and enough air conditioning was pumped in to keep reporters from wilting on the hottest day of the year.
The former president’s son tried to enter the “spin room,” an area reserved for the debate participants, their surrogates and select media, but he was stopped by a security official.
So Trump, soon surrounded by a dozen or so reporters, in effect created his own spin room, taking questions and opining on the evening as the security official held his position a few feet away.
Trump said his father didn’t attend the debate because, “if you have a 60-point lead, dominating a field, you don’t go in to a setup,” Trump said.
That’s an exaggeration. The former president was leading his GOP rivals by roughly 40 percentage points in national polls leading up to the debate.
The elder Trump, who’s facing a litany of federal charges, is expected to turn himself in on Thursday to authorities in Atlanta on charges that he tried to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Like associates Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, who were booked on Wednesday, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office is expected to release a mug shot of the former president. That picture, said Don Jr., “is going to be the most iconic photo in the history of U.S. politics. … That will only help him.”
During the debate, some of the candidates criticized the elder Trump for increases in the national debt and for his actions that led to four criminal indictments. Milwaukee Magazine asked Don Trump Jr. if he wanted to respond to any of the attacks. “Not really, because I thought they were all bullshit,” he said.
Wednesday’s event was the first presidential debate in Milwaukee since the elder Trump and other GOP presidential contenders sparred at the Milwaukee Theatre in 2015. Democratic presidential contenders debated in 2016 at UW-Milwaukee and in 2004 at Marquette University.
Wisconsin is likely to be pivotal in the 2024 election. The Badger State has been decided by less than 1 percentage point in the last two presidential elections and in four of the last six (2020, 2016, 2004 and 2000).
