Trump says he will skip Republican primary debates: Live updates

Former president Donald Trump confirmed on Sunday that he will be skipping Wednesday’s first Republican presidential primary debate.

“The public knows who I am & what a successful Presidency I had,” Trump wrote on his social media site. “I WILL THEREFORE NOT BE DOING THE DEBATES!” His spokesman did not immediately clarify whether he plans to boycott every primary debate or just those that have currently been scheduled.

The former president and early GOP frontrunner had said for months that he saw little upside in joining his GOP rivals on stage when they gather for the first time in Milwaukee, given his commanding lead in the race. And he had made clear to those he had spoken to in recent days that his opinion had not changed.

As President Joe Biden likes to remind anyone who’ll listen, “This is not your grandfather’s Republican Party”.

Donald Trump is still insisting he will not participate in the upcoming Republican primary debates, citing his lead over his opponents and the precedent set by former President Ronald Reagan.

Mr Trump made his proclamation in a typical rambling post on his Truth Social platform.

Donald Trump will skip the first Republican debate of the 2024 primaries and attempt to upstage his rivals for the party’s nomination by instead sitting down for an interview with Tucker Carlson, according to a report.

Citing multiple people briefed on the matter, The New York Times reports that the former president made up his mind to miss the Fox News-hosted GOP debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Kenneth Chesebro, a Donald Trump ally and the alleged mastermind of the scheme to subvert the results of the 2020 election through the use of fake electors, was at the US Capitol on January 6, accompanying conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

Video and photos taken on the grounds of the Capitol on the day Trump loyalists stormed the building, reviewed and reported on first by CNN, clearly show the attorney, now at the heart of the criminal case concerning the plot to overturn the election, wearing a red Trump 2020 hat and filming Jones with his phone.

Florida Gov Ron DeSantis is seeing his support in the Republican primary race crater as rivals gain ground against him while former President Donald Trump’s dominance over the party appears to be holding steady.

A new CBS News poll of likely Republican primary voters across the country shows Mr DeSantis trending downwards, currently at 16 per cent after dropping seven percentage points over a two-month span. In the time since CBS polled voters in June, the governor has slipped from 23 per cent while businessman Vivek Ramaswamy has surged into third place.

Take a look at how this poll illuminates the latest dynamics of the 2024 presidential race:

A federal judge has once again dismissed Donald Trump’s attempts to stall litigation from writer E Jean Carroll, who was awarded a $5m jury verdict earlier this year finding the former president liable for sexual abuse and defamation after speaking publicly about it.

His fourth attempt, along with his previous attempts, have not provided a “single reason” to show any likelihood that he will succeed on appeal, according to US District Judge Lewis Kaplan.

Facing four criminal indictments as he seeks the Republican nomination for president, Donald Trump has repeatedly lashed out at the prosecutors and judges handling his cases, while his supporters spin volatile rhetoric into threats of political violence.

His inflammatory remarks, threats to political rivals and borderline incitement have galvanised his supporters, who echo and amplify his statements and hear his alleged dogwhistles loud and clear.

The Independent’s Alex Woodward reports:

A British filmmaker who interviewed Donald Trump on the eve of the attack on the Capitol has opened up about the former president’s “unhinged” demeanour at the time.

Alex Holder documented the days leading up to January 6 and its fallout for Unprecedented, a movie about the last months of Mr Trump’s presidency. The film was released last summer, months before the Department of Justice subpoenaed Mr Holder for any raw footage related to the movie.

Appearing on CNN’s Newsroom with host Jim Acosta on Saturday, Mr Holder delved into Mr Trump’s state of mind during interviews recorded just before the attack.

Mike Pence has just made a statement that seriously contradicts the claims being used by Donald Trump and his team to defend his handling of a trove of classified documents found in his home at Mar-a-Lago.

Up until now, Mr Trump and his allies in the Trumpworld media circle have claimed that the ex-president had a “standing order” to declassify any documents being taken by his team from the White House. But no White House staffers have emerged to back that up, and proof of an order has not been found either.