{"id":14767,"date":"2023-08-24T18:32:15","date_gmt":"2023-08-25T01:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=14767"},"modified":"2023-08-24T20:13:47","modified_gmt":"2023-08-25T03:13:47","slug":"the-elephant-not-in-the-room%e2%80%99-the-other-gop-candidates-debate-in-milwaukee-wisconsin-bradcast-8242023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=14767","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;The Elephant Not in the Room&#8217;: The Other GOP Candidates Debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin: &#8216;BradCast&#8217; 8\/24\/2023"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/Images\/BradCast_GOPPrimaryDebate-Milwaukee082323-TrumpTie_082423.jpg\" hspace=\"6\" vspace=\"3\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\">On today&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/BradCast\"><i>BradCast<\/i><\/a>, it&#8217;s special coverage of the first GOP Presidential Primary debate of the 2024 campaign. It featured eight candidates, none of which were named Trump, But he was there anyway. [<i>Audio link to full show follows below this summary.<\/i>]\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/first-republican-debate-2024-elections-gop-89812d5aa1ed6a4ebe7373ff36858250\">raucus two-hour debate<\/a> in Milwaukee, <b>Wisconsin<\/b> was sponsored by Fox &#8220;News&#8221; and held before a rowdy audience of booing and cheering Republicans who, at times, resembled a pro wrestling crowd &#8212; or a lynch mob &#8212; more than supporters of an American political party.<\/p>\n<p>The actual participants on the stage were (in order of polling popularity <i>before<\/i> the debate): Florida Gov. <b>Ron DeSantis<\/b>; 38-year old entrepreneur <b>Vivek Ramaswamy<\/b> (who, if you hadn&#8217;t heard of him before last night, you probably have now); Former Vice President <b>Mike Pence<\/b>; Former South Carolina Gov. and U.N. Ambassador <b>Nikki Haley<\/b>; Former New Jersey Gov. <b>Chris Christie<\/b>; South Carolina U.S. Senator <b>Tim Scott<\/b>; Former Arkansas Gov. <b>Asa Hutchinson<\/b>; North Dakota Gov. <b>Doug Burgum<\/b> (who, if you hadn&#8217;t heard of him before last night, you may <i>still<\/i> have no idea who he is today.)<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re joined today by some favorite <i>BradCast<\/i> special coverage guests to try and make sense of it all. (Which was no easy feat, frankly!) <b>HEATHER DIGBY PARTON<\/b> is a longtime, award-winning columnist at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/writer\/heather_digby_parton\">Salon<\/a> and founder of <a href=\"https:\/\/digbysblog.net\">Digby&#8217;s Hullabaloo<\/a> blog; <b>&#8220;DRIFTGLASS&#8221;<\/b> is otherwise known as both <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mr_electrico\">@Mr_Electrico<\/a> on  the site formerly known as Twitter and occasional as just &#8220;Bill&#8221; back at home in &#8220;Flyover Country, Illinois&#8221; where he produces the weekly <a href=\"http:\/\/professionalleft.blogspot.com\/\"><i>Professional Left Podcast<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Among the questions asked, answered and\/or discussed today&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Who and what is Vivek Ramaswamy? And why was he both the target and obnoxious star of the evening?<\/li>\n<li>What did all those red ties worn by everyone but Christie, Hutchinson and Haley actually mean?<\/li>\n<li>What happened to Great White (Non-Trump) Hope DeSantis? Why was he largely ignored? And why was he screaming?<\/li>\n<li>Holy crap! Was that a question about Climate Change on a Fox &#8216;News&#8217; sponsored debate?!<\/li>\n<li>Has Pence been underestimated after so many years in Trump&#8217;s shadow?<\/li>\n<li>Did Haley help or hurt herself in calling for a &#8220;new generation&#8221; of GOP leaders (while clearly being part of the old generation of GOP leaders)?<\/li>\n<li>Wait, they all think Pence did the right thing on January 6, 2021, but almost all of them would support Trump next year even if convicted on felony crimes?<\/li>\n<li>Have Christie and Pence figured out how to use the Constitution as a weapon against Trump?<\/li>\n<li>Remember when even Republican debates included actual policy issues?<\/li>\n<li>Who on that stage would be more likely than Trump to defeat Joe Biden next year?<\/li>\n<li>If Trump is somehow removed from contention, who becomes the party&#8217;s front-runner?<\/li>\n<li>Was Trump right or wrong to stay out of the debate?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>All of that and many more questions asked, answered, discussed or dodged on today&#8217;s special edition of <i>The BradCast<\/i>, as Trump heads to a jail in Atlanta to be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/politics\/live-news\/trump-georgia-surrender-indictment-08-24-23\/h_563f596fb6f1b8e44d83d8aef231e255\">booked<\/a> on his fourth criminal indictment of the year and Fulton County District Attorney <b>Fani Willis<\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/23926016-request-for-oct-23-trial-date\">asks the Court [PDF]<\/a> to begin his racketeering trial just two months from now in October(!) and as the once Grand Ole Party continues its long, dangerous descent into madness.<\/p>\n<p><em>POST-SHOW UPDATE<\/em>: The judge quickly <a href=\"https:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/news\/trump-and-chesebro-engage-in-early-jockeying-over-georgia-trial-date\">approved<\/a> Willis&#8217; request for an October 23 trial, but only for Trump attorney <b>Ken Chesebro<\/b> (alleged architect of the fake electors scheme), who invoked Georgia&#8217;s speedy trial law. The other defendants do not yet have a trial date. So The Cheese stands alone&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\".\/Images\/Speaker_Icon_24.png\" style=\"width: 24px; float: none; vertical-align: middle;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px; line-height: 18px;\"> <b><i><a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/audio\/BradCast_BradFriedman_HeatherDigbyParton-Driftglass-GOPPrimaryDebateMilwaukeeWI_082423.mp3\">CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!&#8230;<\/a><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong><em>PROGRAMMING NOTE:<\/em><\/strong> <em>The BradCast<\/em> and <a href=\"http:\/\/GreenNews.BradBlog.com\"><i>Green News Report<\/i><\/a> are standing down until after the Labor Day Holiday! See you in September!&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><center><b>* * *<\/b><\/center><i>While we post <a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/BradCast\"><\/i>The BradCast<i><\/a> here every day, and you can hear it across all of our great affiliate stations and websites, to automagically get new episodes as soon as they&#8217;re available sent right to your computer or personal device, subscribe for free at <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-bradcast-w-brad-friedman\/id803467610\">iTunes<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pandora.com\/podcast\/the-bradcast-w-brad-friedman\/PC:1000025838\">Pandora<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/tunein.com\/radio\/The-BradCast-with-Brad-Friedman-p477565\/\">TuneIn<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.google.com\/feed\/aHR0cHM6Ly9icmFkYmxvZy5jb20vcG9kY2FzdGdlbi9icmFkY2FzdC9mZWVkLnhtbA\">Google<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/The-BradCast-w-Brad-Friedman\/dp\/B08JJRN86R\/ref=sr_1_1\">Amazon<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/podcastgen\/bradcast\/feed.xml\">our native RSS feed<\/a>!<\/i><\/p>\n<p><!--BB-DONATEPITCH-START--><\/p>\n<div style=\"background:#f5f0e0; border:2px solid #6b5a2e; border-radius:6px; padding:10px 14px; text-align:center; font-family:Georgia,serif;\"><span style=\"display:block; margin:0 0 8px 0; color:#3a2e0e; font-size:0.95em; line-height:1.5;\"><strong>The BRAD BLOG<\/strong>, <em>The BradCast<\/em> and <em>Green News Report<\/em> are all 100% independent and 100% listener and reader supported!<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/Donate\" style=\"display:inline-block; background:#6b5a2e; color:#ffffff; padding:6px 18px; border-radius:4px; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; font-family:Georgia,serif; font-size:0.9em;\">Please CLICK HERE to help support our work today!<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!--BB-DONATEPITCH-END--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On today&#8217;s BradCast, it&#8217;s special coverage of the first GOP Presidential Primary debate of the 2024 campaign. It featured eight candidates, none of which were named Trump, But he was there anyway. [Audio link to full show follows below this summary.] The raucus two-hour debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin was sponsored by Fox &#8220;News&#8221; and held [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,966,89,675,471,479,1888,969,1611,1629,883,14,72,261,1590,477,853,774,300,126,295,1238,1025,127,1900],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-14767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-accountability","category-asa-hutchinson","category-media-appearance","category-bradcast","category-chris-christie","category-donald-trump","category-doug-burgum","category-election-2020","category-election-2024","category-fani-willis","category-fascism","category-fox-news","category-georgia","category-immigration","category-insurrection","category-kpfk","category-mike-pence","category-nikki-haley","category-republicans","category-rights-and-freedoms","category-rnc","category-ron-desantis","category-tim-scott","category-the-constitution","category-vivek-ramaswamy","bb-type-bradcast"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14767\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14767"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=14767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}