Steve Doocy Shades Trump for Blowing Off Debate By Highlighting His Rivals’ Polling Gains: ‘People Have Started Shopping’

Former President Donald Trump can’t say Steve Doocy didn’t warn him.

On Tuesday, the Fox & Friends co-host broke down a new poll indicating Trump went down 6 points following last week’s debate in Milwaukee — which the former president skipped.

“Ron DeSantis went up 2,” Doocy said. “Mike Pence went up 4. Nikki Haley, up 5. Mike Pence increased his support with people in the Midwest. Donald Trump support with people in the Midwest dropped 12. Nikki Haley’s support with people over 50 went up from 2 to 9. And Donald Trump’s support with people 50 over dropped 7 points.”

In the days leading up to the debate, Doocy had been adamant that Trump was making a mistake by sitting out. The Fox News host trumpeted the latest polling as proof that he was right.

“As we had said before the debate, the debate was the official starting gate, essentially, for 2024, and people started shopping,” Doocy said. “And now people have started shopping. They looked at the people on the stage, and they said, ‘You know what? I kind of like that person too.’ Donald Trump is still way ahead. But now people are looking at other people. And as we said before the debate as well, if Donald Trump gets in after skipping the first debate, it’s going to look like he’s getting in because he’s losing.”

Doocy’s colleague, Brian Kilmeade, argued Trump will not hold to his vow to skip all nine GOP debate.

“At one point you’ve gotta think Trump’s going to get in there,” Kilmeade said. “So I’m not sure why not the next one. Might be worth it if the stage can shrink [if fewer candidates qualify].”

“We’ll see,” said co-host Ainsley Earhardt.

Doocy took one more jab at the former president before the show moved on to another topic.

“Given the fact that he went down, maybe he gets in,” Doocy said. “Stay tuned.”

Watch above, via Fox News.

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