By Bryce Yazdiya 
On Sept. 27 the GOP Presidential hopefuls met at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute in Simi Valley, California to debate each other on various social issues, and policies, and to express how they would change the country. Seven candidates took the stage including FL Gov. Ron DeSantis, Former Vice President Mike Pence, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.
However, absent from the debate was Former President Donald Trump who instead traveled to Michigan amidst an autoworker’s strike.
FL Gov. Ron DeSantis called out the former President for skipping the debate while also criticizing President Biden.
“Where’s Joe Biden? He’s completely missing in action from leadership. And you know who else is missing in action? Donald Trump is missing in action. He should be on this stage tonight. He owes it to you to defend his record where they added $7.8 trillion to the debt, that set the stage for the inflation that we have now.”
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie chimed in as well, even choosing to give the Former President a nickname.
“Donald Trump should be here to answer to that, but he’s not,” Christie said in response to a question regarding the need for “law and order” in parts of the country dealing with rising crime rates.
“Donald, I know you’re watching. … You’re not here tonight — not because of polls and not because of your indictments — you’re not here because you’re afraid of being on this stage and defending your record.”
“You’re ducking these things,” Christie added. “And let me tell you what’s going to happen. [If] you keep doing that, no one up here is going to call you Donald Trump anymore, we’re going to call you Donald Duck.”
Amidst these accusations from his GOP competitors, Donald Trump currently sits on a nearly 42% cushion in the GOP primary polls as of the writing of this post.
Following the first GOP Presidential Debate that Donald Trump skipped, the former president dropped 6 percentage points in a poll conducted by Emerson College compared to a poll taken a week earlier by the same institution although he still held a considerable lead over his GOP counterparts.
Historically there are mixed results when it comes to how successful candidates are after skipping debates.
Jimmy Carter opted out of the first two presidential debates against Ronald Reagan in 1980 and went on to lose the White House whereas Lyndon B. Johnson declined to debate his challenger Barry Goldwater in the 1964 election and went on to win the presidency.
How Donald Trump will fare after skipping the first two GOP debates is yet to be determined.