‘Cowardice Candidate’: Trump Surrogates Kari Lake and Byron Donalds Blasted Dems For Skipping Debates Before Covering For Trump

Surrogates for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign who intend on helping cover for Trump’s decision to skip the Republican primary debates blasted 2022 Democrats for skipping similar forums.

Late last August, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) criticized Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman for not agreeing to debate his opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz.

“I pray that @JohnFetterman fully recovers from his health issues, but is he really refusing to debate @DrOz. Pennsylvania voters deserve to see debates. The debate of ideas is part of the job,” opined Donalds. Fetterman, who suffered a stroke earlier that year, eventually agreed to participate in one debate; he also prevailed over Oz in the general election.

Kari Lake, the Republican candidate for governor in Arizona in 2022, was even more incensed by her then-opponent Katie Hobbs’s refusal to debate her.

“She keeps giving excuses for not wanting to appear on stage and layout her plan for Arizona,” argued Lake at the time. “We have far too many issues facing our state right now to have a weak cowardice candidate win and make it to the governor’s mansion.”

But now that Trump has seemingly resolved to skip the GOP primary debates, both Donalds and Lake have changed their tune.

President @realDonaldTrump has moved on to the General Election & is focused on defeating Crooked @JoeBiden. It’s time for the rest of the @GOP to do the same,” tweeted Lake on Sunday after Trump declared that “the public knows who I am” and that he would “THEREFORE NOT BE DOING DEBATES.”

Donalds, meanwhile, is reportedly planning on joining Lake on site at the first GOP debate hosted by Fox News on Wednesday, where they will reportedly work the spin room for the former president in spite of his conspicuous absence.

Trump is reportedly also considering mounting a counterprogramming campaign while the rest of the candidates are on stage by calling into rival networks or sitting down for an interview with Tucker Carlson.