Fox News’ Dana Perino On Another Trump-Less GOP Debate And Why Voters Are Still “Open Minded” About An Alternative
deadline.comFormer President Donald Trump again is bashing the prospect of another Republican presidential debate, falsely claiming that his absence has translated into low viewership.
In fact, when his rivals gather at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library for the second debate on Wednesday, the question will be whether the event on Fox Business and Univision can match last month’s figures for the first gathering: a higher-than-expected 12.8 million viewers.
Fox News’s Dana Perino, who will moderate the debate with Stuart Varney and Univision’s Ilia Calderón, suggested that the viewership reflected a willingness among voters to look at alternatives. “I think there’s people who are open minded and they’re paying a lot of attention, and they care about the direction of this country and they’re worried about it,” Perino told Deadline. “I think that the national level of anxiety is very high, in particular on a couple of issues,” Perino added, citing the economy, polarization and the general direction of the country.
Seven candidates qualified for the debate: North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence, Vivek Ramaswamy and Sen.
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