‘Duke It Out’: Donald Trump Called Out by 'Fox & Friends' Host Steve Doocy for Refusing to Debate Ron DeSantis
Jul. 17 2023, Published 10:15 a.m. ET
Donald Trump has refused to agree to take the stage for debates with his rivals for 2024, including Ron DeSantis, and now he’s being criticized by his old friends at Fox News, RadarOnline.com has learned.
On Monday, Fox & Friends hosts Brian Kilmeade and Steve Doocy discussed the ex-president’s decision to blow off the debates.
Trump has argued he doesn’t need to be present given his extraordinary poll numbers.
Fox & Friends played a clip of DeSantis talking about why Trump should debate him.
“We’ve been very frank at our differences with respect to the former president. I mean, for example, he promised to drain the swamp. It got worse. He did not drain the swamp,” DeSantis said.
“He promised to Bill have Mexico pay for a border wall. They did like 50 miles of wall. There’s massive expansive still there. He said he was going to eliminate the national debt. They added almost $8 trillion to the debt in four years,” he added.
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DeSantis ended, “But I have no interest in attacking Donald Trump or any of these other candidates. Personally, I think we’ve got to rise above that and focus on the issue once.”
Kilmeade didn’t agree with DeSantis fully. He said, “I don’t think that that’s going to get anywhere. Everybody knows how hard Donald Trump worked on the swamp by himself, basically. And number two is the wall stop with the 40 miles of wall, the stuff that was replaced.”
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Kilmeade admitted Trump has weak spots but argued DeSantis was picking the wrong topics.
Doocy then interjected and pressured Trump to appear for the debates.
He said, “Brian I think those points that you just made on behalf of Donald Trump, it would be great to see Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis and Chris Christie just duke it out.”
He added, “That’s why they call it a debate. And then, you know, so many people have said, well, Donald Trump, an angel you recorded a while ago, he’s done so well in debates in the past. All right. Show up, debate, and shine. This is his big chance. All right. I’m just going to eliminate these two immediately.”
Trump has yet to respond to the hosts’ remarks.