DeSantis calls Trump “missing in action” for dodging debate

Carving out time behind the mic during the second Republican presidential primary debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called out Donald Trump for being a no-show once again. Not like he ever hinted at appearing in the first place.

Piggybacking off of a President Biden diss, in which he called him “missing in action from leadership,” DeSantis pivoted to, “And you know who else is missing in action? Donald Trump is missing in action. He should be on this stage tonight.” Not knowing that elsewhere — at Drake Enterprises, an automotive parts manufacturer and supplier in Macomb County, Michigan, to be exact — Trump was projecting his own barbs right back, referring to DeSantis and the other presidential hopefuls as nothing more than “job candidates.” 

As The Hill points out in their coverage of Wednesday’s debate, “Trump, the frontrunner of the GOP presidential field, skipped the GOP’s first presidential debate in Milwaukee in August and passed on the second event . . . He’s cited his lead in the polls as a reason for not getting on the stage with his fellow White House hopefuls.”

Knowing this in advance, DeSantis persisted, saying, “He owes it to you to defend his record where they added $7.8 trillion to the debt, that set the stage for the inflation that we have now.”