Leave it to the Republicans to split voters instead of trying to bring them together. In this case it is one night that holds one GOP debate and two individual events on the calendar in Iowa.
On January 10, just 5 days before the Iowa caucuses, CNN will hold a debate for the Republican primary candidates who qualify. As it turns out, CNN announced that only three candidates qualify – Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, and Nikki Haley. Shocker, I know. Trump isn’t going to participate, as is his habit during this primary. He will do a town hall with FNC, Special Report chief political anchor Bret Baier and The Story’s executive editor and anchor Martha MacCallum will co-moderate the event. It will be held in Des Moines. The event will pre-empt his pal Hannity’s show that night.
The CNN debate will be held at Drake University in Des Moines. Haley and DeSantis will also appear on CNN for back-to-back town halls on Thursday.
Vivek Ramaswamy didn’t qualify for the CNN debate. Sore loser that he is, he is also holding his own event on January 10. He is slamming CNN along the way. The event he is doing is also on the evening of January 10. It is a live studio town hall with podcast host Tim Pool.
“Ratings wasteland CNN has not only guaranteed themselves the most boring presidential ‘debate’ in modern history with two career politicians reciting consultant-vetted talking points, but the network has exposed itself to be actively engaging in egregious interference with the Iowa GOP caucus and disrespecting GOP voters,” Ramaswamy said in a statement. “Censorship, cherry-picking polls, and legal threats are just the mainstream media’s latest tactics to prop up their favorite puppet.”
Ironic that he hits DeSantis and Haley over puppetry, given that it is widely accepted that Ramaswamy is a surrogate for Trump in the primary battles. No one follows polls closer than Donald Trump. He lives and breathes polls.
Ramaswamy didn’t meet the requirement of receiving 10% in three separate national or Iowa polls of Republican caucus-goers or primary voters for the CNN debate. Ramaswamy has been sinking in the polls and seems unable to regain any traction. He was more of a flash in the pan than a serious contender, as it turns out. His town hall with Tim Pool will be at 8:00 p.m. Central Time. The CNN and FNC events are at 9:00 p.m. Viewers at home can watch Vivek, if interested, and then decide between Trump or DeSantis and Haley. I’m definitely ready for the match-up between DeSantis and Haley.
Vivek slammed CNN for taking down his town hall from YouTube and he claims it is because they consider his “uncomfortable truths” as conspiracy theories.
Forget @CNN’s fake Iowa “debate” on Jan 10 which will be the most boring in modern history. We’re doing a live-audience show that night in Des Moines with @Timcast instead. Won’t hold back. Here’s the backstory on CNN’s shenanigans:
– On Dec 13, CNN disgracefully cut short its…— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) January 2, 2024
– On Dec 13, CNN disgracefully cut short its own Iowa town hall with me after I correctly pointed out uncomfortable truths about Jan 6, which CNN instantly dismissed as “conspiracy theories.”
– On Dec 14, CNN then threatened my campaign on the phone with a cease-and-desist & had YouTube black out the town hall after it got 200k+ views on YouTube in a matter of hours. Yet Nikki Haley’s CNN town hall was still up after 6 months (68k total views, sad).
– Later on Dec 14, CNN notified my campaign that multiple qualifying polls, which the RNC used for each of the RNC Debates, mysteriously wouldn’t count for CNN’s fake “debate” in Iowa on January 10.
– CNN Senior Media “Reporter” Oliver Darcy wrote a newsletter that castigated his own network for “allowing [me] to infect the public with his conspiracy campaign.
– CNN Commentator Van Jones said he was “literally shaking” when he heard me speak. And my rhetoric is “one step away from Nazi propaganda.”
-CNN Anchor Anderson Cooper said I delivered a “soliloquy of conspiracy theories.”
-CNN Anchor Pamela Brown and “Chief Investigative Correspondent” said Vivek has a “history of peddling disinformation.”
-CNN Anchor Kaitlan Collins said I use a “reasonable tone” to sell sinister lies to people “who aren’t paying close attention” and might think what he is saying “maybe is legitimate.”
-CNN’s token “conservative” Commentator Alyssa Farah Griffin said my rhetoric is “damaging to the country.”
So, there’s that. I guess Vivek plans to go down in flames instead of just exiting the race. It’s his money he’s burning through.
We’ll see how all this shakes out on January 10. Then we go on to New Hampshire later in the month and I’m wondering what will happen if Chris Christie doesn’t meet CNN’s qualifications there. New Hampshire is his only hope of making a splash on primary night against Trump.