Candidates Discuss Absent Donald Trump at the Third Republican Debate

TIME

The third Republican presidential debate opened Wednesday with a sharp question about the one candidate not on stage - Donald Trump - who once again skipped the event citing his commanding early lead in the party's 2024 primary.

Transcript

00:00 (dramatic music)

00:02 - And good evening everyone,

00:03 welcome to the Republican presidential debate.

00:06 - Now if you look where we are now,

00:07 it's a lot different than we were in 2016.

00:09 And Donald Trump's a lot different guy than he was in 2016.

00:13 He owes it to you to be on this stage

00:16 and explain why he should get another chance.

00:19 He should explain why he didn't have Mexico pay

00:22 for the border wall.

00:23 He should explain why he racked up so much debt.

00:26 He should explain why he didn't drain the swamp.

00:28 And he said Republicans were gonna get tired of winning.

00:31 Well we saw last night, I'm sick of Republicans losing.

00:34 - You know, everybody wants to talk about President Trump.

00:37 Well I can talk about President Trump.

00:38 I can tell you that I think he was the right president

00:40 at the right time.

00:42 I don't think he's the right president now.

00:44 I think that he put us $8 trillion in debt

00:47 and our kids are never gonna forgive us for that.

00:50 I think the fact that he used to be right on Ukraine

00:52 and foreign issues, now he's getting weak in the knees

00:55 and trying to be friendly again.

00:57 - I'll say this about Donald Trump.

00:59 Anybody who's gonna be spending the next year and a half

01:01 of their life focusing on keeping themselves out of jail

01:04 in courtrooms cannot lead this party or this country.

01:07 It needs to be said plainly.

01:08 - Governor, thank you.

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Transcript

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