From New York Times, I'm Michael Barrow. This is the Daily.

On Wednesday night, Republicans held their first debate of the 2024 presidential race

without the campaign's most dominant candidate on the stage.

Today, Maggie Haberman, on which candidates broke through, which faded into the background,

and how the debate might influence the rest of the race.

It's Thursday, August 24th.

Maggie, thank you for being here. Thank you for being on time.

I don't get thanked for that very often, so I'm very happy to have it be.

We said we'd start at midnight, and it's only 12.23. That is so true.

That is so on time in our world. Yes, it is. Definitely is.

So Maggie, the backdrop to this debate has been all this drama around whether Donald Trump would

participate. He did not participate. Can you briefly, based on the reporting you have done,

explain why he chose not to show up?

So basically, Michael, from his perspective and his AIDS perspective, why would he debate?

That was their question. Trump has literally said that himself repeatedly,

and they have made that point for many, many weeks now, going back to the spring.

What do they mean? Why not debate?

Because it was not in his interests as the front-runner by a wide margin in the Republican

primary to be on stage with people who are polling so much lower, in some cases really in low

single digits. In their minds, it could only hurt him. It could take the shine off of him.

It could allow someone else to shine to have a moment at his expense.

And on top of that, he has this long-running feud with the network that hosted the debate Fox News,

...