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MADISON – President Joe Biden’s campaign on Friday accused former President Donald Trump of wanting “to avoid appearing in Wisconsin” as it seems likely the current Republican frontrunner will skip the first GOP presidential primary debate in Milwaukee next week.
“Of course Donald Trump wants to avoid appearing in Wisconsin because he knows Wisconsin is a state that illustrates his failed leadership,” Biden campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz said in a statement to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The campaign referenced Foxconn Technology Group’s project in Racine County that had promised 13,000 new jobs and had been touted by Trump but ultimately never came to fruition.
“Wisconsinites soundly rejected his ongoing efforts to ban abortion in the state’s Supreme Court election earlier this year,” Munoz added. “He cannot hide from the fact that Wisconsinites rejected him in 2020, and will reject the MAGA agenda again in 2024.”
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The attack comes as Trump appears to be taking a pass on attending the debate, instead planning to participate in an online interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, according to news reports. The decision from the former president would end months of speculation as to whether he would be on stage in Milwaukee on Wednesday, though Trump has previously hinted he would not attend.
On his social media website Truth Social on Thursday, Trump noted that he is polling far ahead of his Republican rivals, writing of the debate: “Reagan didn’t do it, and neither did others. People know my Record, one of the BEST EVER, so why would I Debate? I’M YOUR MAN. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
More:Do other Republicans have any chance against Trump? Here’s what early polls can tell us.
A spokesperson for Trump in a statement to the Journal Sentinel did not confirm whether Trump plans to skip the debate. “We look forward to debating the failed policies of a weak and failed Joe Biden — if he can get out of his basement long enough,” the campaign said.
Democrats plan to use the Wednesday debate to attempt to paint Republicans as extreme and tie other candidates on stage to the former president as part of a sweeping media blitz. Officials from both the Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee will be on the ground in Wisconsin engaging with voters.
They will post three billboards around Milwaukee ahead of the debate that will attempt to contrast “the MAGA agenda with Biden’s record of accomplishments,” according to Biden’s campaign. Another mobile billboard truck will circle Fiserv Forum, the debate venue.
Trump’s apparent decision to skip the debate is a shot to both the Republican National Committee, which is organizing the debate, and Fox News, which will moderate the event. Both organizations had pushed Trump to attend in recent weeks. His decision also comes on the heels of his fourth criminal indictment — this time from a prosecutor in Georgia who accused Trump of leading a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election.
More:The indispensable state: Why Wisconsin could again be the electoral ‘tipping point’ in 2024
Still, Trump is expected to have an impact on the debate. Fox News anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum told the Journal Sentinel this week that Trump will “be a part of this debate whether he’s there or not.”
Some of Trump’s strongest allies in Washington, including Georgia U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Florida U.S. Reps. Matt Gaetz and Byron Donalds, plan to be in Milwaukee for the debate, according to NBC News. Kari Lake, who lost a race for governor in Arizona and has since embraced false claims of election fraud, could also make an appearance.
The Republican Party of Wisconsin had not responded to Trump’s apparent debate snub as of Friday afternoon.
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