Republican national political strategist Brian Seitchik sees former President Donald Trump’s absence from the first Republican presidential debate as an opportunity for another candidate to have a breakout moment, but it will be a challenge without the former president there to draw attention and there could be missed opportunities.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, and Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) are set to go head to head in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Wednesday night, in a debate hosted by Fox News.
In an interview with NTD News, Mr. Seitchick—the owner of RDP strategies and a Trump campaign veteran—laid out his predictions for how the eight Republican candidates will perform on the debate stage without the theatrics of the 2024 frontrunner.
‘Less Buzzy’ Without Trump
“It will certainly be less buzzy, we know that everything Donald Trump generates extra attention,” Mr. Seitchick said.
On Sunday, the former president announced his decision to skip the first debate, citing a double-digit lead over the next closest candidate, Mr. DeSantis. The former president may not only skip the debate, but deliberately draw attention away from the other candidates by airing an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson at the same time.
“No one is better at generating a sort of a headline or a viral moment better than [President Trump], so others will sort of be chasing that opportunity,” Mr. Seitchick said.
Even without being on the debate stage, President Trump could become the dominant topic of discussion on Wednesday night, particularly as the frontrunner faces four separate criminal indictments.
“I think we’re certainly going to see a lot about the Trump indictments,” Mr. Seitchick explained.
Consecutive indictments of the former president in New York, Florida, Washington D.C., and Georgia have elicited a mix of reactions from the Republican field, with some defending him more vociferously, while others have called for the Republican Party to move on from their 2016 champion.
Mr. Ramaswamy, who has been rising in the polls, has called the indictments against President Trump “un-American” and has vowed to pardon the former president if he wins the 2024 election. Mr. Rawaswamy has also launched a Freedom of Information Act effort to uncover whether or not President Joe Biden’s White House coordinated with the Department of Justice to bring about one of the federal indictments against President Trump in Washington D.C.
After the most recent indictment against President Trump in Georgia, Mr. Hutchinson condemned President Trump’s reelection bid.
“Over a year ago, I said that Donald Trump’s actions disqualified him from ever serving as President again. Those words are more true today than ever before,” said Mr. Hutchinson, who previously served as a federal prosecutor.
Mr. Seitchick predicted President Trump will be the “dominant subject” of Wednesday’s debate.
Trump Critic Could Get Breakout Moment
The Republican political strategist predicted that whichever candidate lands a solid hit on President Trump could actually be a breakout winner, so long as their last name is not Christie.
Mr. Christie had been a supporter of President Trump throughout his first term but has since turned against the former president. In a press appearance earlier this week, Mr. Christie called the former president a “coward” for skipping the debate and continued to throw jabs over President Trump’s legal woes.
“Nominating someone who’s out on bail in four jurisdictions is not a winning formula,” Mr. Christie said.
Finding a new angle of attack on President Trump that doesn’t follow the same pattern as Mr. Christie could bolster a new challenger in the race, according to Mr. Seitchick.
“At the end of the day, the winner of the debate, I think the one that gets sort of the viral moment, the one that is played most in cable news, and in written about is going to be the one that goes after Trump different than Christie,” he said. “So I think that’s going to be who’s who has the best shot sort of for a breakout moment, but not sure who that’s going to be there. Again, we haven’t seen a lot of that on the stump thus far.”
An unverified debate-prep memo, allegedly leaked from the DeSantis campaign has indicated the Florida governor plans to “hammer” Mr. Ramaswamy while defending President Trump from Mr. Christie.
Mr. Seitchick said he’s seen some attacks on the former president by his former running mate, Vice President Pence, but said he hasn’t seen many indications that Mr. DeSantis or other candidates are prepared to challenge President Trump directly.
“I think frankly, that’s a bit of a mistake,” the Republican political strategist said. “I think if you want to be the king, you’ve got to beat the king. But it doesn’t seem like they’re in the phase of the campaign where they’re really willing to take the fight to him.”
‘Wokeism’ Will Be in the Crosshairs
Beyond the focus on the one 2024 Republican candidate who won’t be on the stage, Mr. Seitchick predicted the other candidates will focus heavily on the issue of “wokeism”—a term often used to describe the racial and gender diversity ideology and policy efforts of the political left, which many conservatives have criticized as divisive and harmful.
Mr. Ramaswamy and Mr. DeSantis have both been prominent critics of these “woke” policies. Mr. Ramaswamy authored the 2021 book “Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam,” a long-form essay on the spread of so-called “woke” policies and outcomes in corporate settings and the consequences of these efforts.
Mr. DeSantis has gone after the alleged”woke” agenda in the Florida education system. In his 2022 election victory speech, he went so far as to call Florida the place “where woke goes to die.”
Mr. Seitchick cautioned that too much emphasis on “wokeism” could distract candidates from laying out their message on how to address concerns about the direction of the U.S. economy.
“I would like to hear a lot about the economy and a lot about people’s prescription for the country,” Mr. Seitchick said. “I suspect we’re going to hear a lot about wokeism. Governor DeSantis is certainly basing a lot of his campaign and his standing up to wokeness in this country. I don’t think we’re going to hear a lot of plans to solving the country’s problems, which I think would be nice and a bit refreshing. I think we’re going to be talking about a lot of nonsense, and not a lot of issues.”
