Rick, let's start here with you.
Look, we had a debate scheduled on ABC for this
Thursday,
which only one qualifying candidate,
Ron DeSantis, confirmed his attendance.
Rick, where does that stand right now?
Yeah, Kayna, and we can walk through it right now.
That debate, that ABC News WMUR debate will not be
moving forward.
And the reason is simple.
Only one candidate has confirmed participation.
We always knew that this debate would depend on the
reality of the race and in part depend on the
Iowa caucuses.
We know that Donald Trump has not participated in any
of the previous debates.
Nikki Haley had not committed to this debate and this
morning she said publicly that she would only be going
to that debate if Donald Trump would also commit to
that debate. We talked to both teams throughout the day.
We gave both teams at 5:00 PM Eastern Time deadline
to commit because the debate is only 48 hours away
and neither Donald Trump nor Nikki Haley would commit to
the debate. Therefore, we were left with just that one
candidate who confirmed and Ron De Santis.
And therefore there will not be a debate in New
Hampshire on Thursday night with ABC News and the primaries
will appear to be set to happen in New Hampshire
without a debate happening. There had also been a debate
scheduled on CNN that appears to be in jeopardy given
the decision by Nikki Haley and and Donald Trump.
And we always knew, right,
that this was contingent, right.
It was contingent on the candidates and the outcome of
this race.
And so here we have it.
This debate will not move forward.