GOP Strategist Calls Trump’s Decision to Skip Debate a ‘Huge Political Insult’

There have been mixed reactions to the decision by former President Donald Trump to skip the first GOP presidential primary debate (and possibly all of them), but even Republicans are calling it a bad move.

On Monday, former Trump press secretary and current Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany said Trump refusing to debate was “a huge political miscalculation.” The same day, on CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, Republican strategist Alice Stewart echoed the comment calling the decision “a huge political insult.” Stewart told host Wolf Blitzer:

Look, it is a huge political insult to Republican voters for him not to participate, as well as to the Republican Party. Voters deserve to have a healthy and robust primary, hearing from all of the candidates on where they stand on the issues, how they contrast with their fellow candidates, and how their vision can help take out President [Joe] Biden. And he’s missing an opportunity. That being said, with a lead like this, I can understand why his campaign is deciding for him not to do so.

Then Stewart pointed out a different perspective on Trump’s poll numbers that made the focus on his competitors a little more interesting:

But it’s incumbent upon the Republican Party … to coalesce behind someone that can take out Donald Trump. He has 40% of Republican voters. That means 60 percent of Republican voters are looking for someone else. So the sooner that the Republicans can narrow the field and coalesce behind one person to take out Donald Trump, the greater opportunity we have for a candidate that can actually win in a general election against the president.

Watch the video above via CNN.