How much will the first GOP debate matter

1 big thing

Axios

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4 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 23 August 2023

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

The first Republican presidential primary debate is Wednesday night in Milwaukee. Fox News is moderating the event and eight candidates will hit the stage at 9 p.m. ET. But, former president Trump isn't one of them. The big picture: Trump said on his Truth Social on Sunday he will "not be doing the debates." Which begs the question – do debates even matter anymore? We take a deeper look at the answer to that question. Plus, new apartment construction on the West Coast is plummeting - what that means for housing. And, ticket sales for college football are through the roof. Guests: Axios' David Lindsey, Analis Bailey and Andrew Keatts. Credits: Axios Today was produced by Niala Boodhoo, Alexandra Botti, Fonda Mwangi, Robin Linn and Alex Sugiura. Music is composed by Evan Viola. You can reach us at [email protected]. You can send questions, comments and story ideas to Niala as a text or voice memo to 202-918-4893. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Good morning. Welcome to Axios today. It's Wednesday, August 23rd. I'm Nyla Boodoo.
0:08.8	Today, new apartment construction on the west coast is plummeting. What that means for housing.
0:14.3	Plus, ticket sales for college football are through the roof. But first, the GOP holds its first
0:19.7	debate tonight. But how much will it matter? That's today's one big thing.
0:24.0	The first Republican presidential primary debate is tonight in Milwaukee. Eight candidates
0:32.2	hit the stage at 9 p.m. but not former president Trump. He said on his truth social on Sunday he will
0:38.4	quote, not be doing the debates, which begs the question, how much does this matter?
0:43.7	Axios is managing editor for politics. David Lindsay is here to help us answer that. Hi, David.
0:48.4	Hi, Nyla. How are you? David, let's start with this big question. How important are these debates
0:53.6	in terms of leading to the eventual nominee? That's unclear. If somebody emerges and this is
0:59.3	the starting point, it's really important. But Trump is a runaway favorite right now and he
1:05.6	doesn't think it's very important. It's a very strategic move for him. He's actually has other
1:10.0	things going on to counter program this debate, an interview with Tucker Carlson that's going to be
1:15.5	posted online. And of course, the very next day, he's surrendering to authorities in Georgia.
1:22.0	So he will be in the news all week and he has been in the news leading up to this. The anticipation
1:27.2	that will here won't he do the debate. No, he's not doing the debate. Then he announces his arrest
1:33.0	when he's going to turn himself in. He has successfully in many ways kind of stepped on the whole
1:39.1	news surrounding the debate. Does it matter if not a lot of people watch the debate, David?
1:44.4	It can. But the people who are going to watch the debate are, I would say, a few, some
1:48.8	interested Democrats, but mainly Republicans. It's going to be on Fox News. It'll reflect their
1:54.0	audience. It won't get their ratings. Fox News wanted it to have because Trump will be absent.
1:59.5	They courted him, basically, and tried to get him to do this debate. But he has some grievances
	...

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