Ronna McDaniel warns Trump it would be ‘mistake’ to skip debate

Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel has cautioned that it would be a mistake for GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump to skip the party’s primary debates.

“I think he should be on the stage. I want everybody on the stage that qualifies, obviously,” she told Fox News Wednesday.

“It’s a mistake not to do the debates, but that’s going to be up to him and his campaign.”

McDaniel cited two main reasons why she feels it’s in Trump’s best interest to jump into the upcoming verbal slugfest despite holding a massive polling lead over his rivals.

“One, short-term, you want to win the nomination, you got to get in front of the whole primary voters,” she said.

“For me, [there’s] another part of it, which is if you end up getting the nomination — for any of these candidates — this is an audience of 20 million people-plus. Why wouldn’t we get in front of them before we go against Joe Biden?”

Trump has long been noncommittal about attending the first debate, which is scheduled for Aug. 23 in Milwaukee.

“Ronald Reagan didn’t do it and a lot of other people didn’t do it. When you have a big lead, you don’t do it,” Trump told FNC’s “Sunday Morning Futures” July 16.

“It’s actually not fair. Why would you let somebody that’s at zero or 1 or 2 or 3 [%] be popping you with questions?”

Longtime adviser Jason Miller hinted that Trump could skip the first two GOP debates, with the second showdown to be held in September at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif.

In January 2016, Trump famously skipped the last pre-caucus debate in Iowa, which he lost to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). He later acknowledged that “I think some people were disappointed” that he didn’t take part, and took part in every other debate en route to the Republican nomination.

Some of Trump’s rivals, such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, have needled him about skipping the debate, with Christie in particular suggesting he will be unable to resist the spectacle.