Republican debate cancelled after Haley refuses to take stage without Trump

ABC News has cancelled the next Republican presidential debate after Nikki Haley said she would not appear on stage unless Donald Trump takes part.

Trump has refused to participate in any of the Republican primary debates so far, making Ron DeSantis the only candidate committed to Thursday’s event in New Hampshire.

“We’ve had five great debates in this campaign,” Haley said in a statement, released as she campaigned in New Hampshire. “Unfortunately, Donald Trump has ducked all of them. He has nowhere left to hide. The next debate I do will either be with Donald Trump or with Joe Biden. I look forward to it.”

Her statement was released a day after the all-important Iowa caucuses, which Trump won by a wide margin over Haley, who won just over 19% of the vote, and DeSantis, who earned 21% of the vote.

The move also could be a result of the last debate which featured only Haley and DeSantis. Haley didn’t perform as well as expected, and DeSantis ultimately ended up beating her for second place in Iowa.

Haley had argued to caucusgoers that picking her gives Republicans a better chance to defeat Biden in November, pointing to survey data showing her with the largest lead among the GOP field in a theoretical general election matchup.

“Our intent was to host a debate coming out of the Iowa caucuses, but we always knew that would be contingent on the candidates and the outcome of the race,” ABC News spokesperson Van Scott said in a statement.

Haley’s decision also casts doubt on another New Hampshire debate scheduled for Sunday on CNN.

On X, DeSantis said Haley “is afraid to debate because she doesn’t want to answer the tough questions.” He accused her of “running to be Trump’s VP” and said that he looked “forward to debating two empty