The Republican National Committee will hold the second GOP presidential primary debate next month at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute in Simi Valley, Politico reported on Wednesday, Aug. 9.
The RNC chose Fox Business to host the debate, a decision that means Fox networks will televise the first two debates. The first debate, to be held Aug. 23 in Milwaukee, will be broadcast on Fox Business’ sister station, Fox News.
To participate in the Simi Valley debate, candidates will need at least 50,000 unique contributors in 20 states or territories, and to score at least 3% in two national polls or in one national poll and two polls from separate states with early contests — Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina or Nevada.
Much GOP political action will revolve around California in the months ahead.
The debates will be followed in Southern California by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as keynote speaker at the California Republican Party’s fall convention in Anaheim in late September.
Former President Donald Trump will speak at a lunch on Friday, Sept. 29, during the gathering in Anaheim. The Florida governor’s keynote speech is slated for a dinner the same day, the party said.
The Reagan Library is the most visited presidential library in the nation. The resting place for Ronald and Nancy Reagan has amassed tens of millions of gubernatorial, presidential and personal papers and more than 60,000 presidential gifts and artifacts.
Among the presidential hopefuls is Trump, who in April took to his Truth Social account to question whether he’d participate in any debates, let alone the Simi Valley debate.
He criticized the choice of the Simi Valley foundation because its longtime board chair, Frederick Ryan Jr., was the publisher of the Washington Post. In another online comment, Trump claimed that “President Ronald Reagan would not approve” of Ryan chairing the Reagan Library board.
In June, Ryan announced he was stepping down as publisher of the Post to lead the new nonpartisan Center on Public Civility, launched by the Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, which is based at the library in Simi Valley. In his announcement he lamented the “decline in civility” in political discourse.
Other presidential hopefuls were among recent speakers at the library, including Florida’s DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Tim Scott, former United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and former New Jersey Chris Christie.
With a commanding lead over the field of hopefuls, Trump told Breitbart News last week that it “could be stupid” to participate in the debates.
Trump is also dealing with legal issues that could hold him back. Politico reported that a source said there’s concern Trump might say something in the debate that could imperil his defense in indictments against him.
If Trump does not attend, this wouldn’t be the first presidential debate he has spurned. In 2016, during his first run for the White House, he skipped a debate moderated by then-Fox News host Megyn Kelly amid a feud with the network. And a 2020 debate between Trump and then-Democratic nominee Joe Biden was canceled after Trump refused to agree to a different, virtual format because of COVID-19.
The Reagan Library has drawn millions of visitors to its events and standbys such as its Air Force One Pavilion which features the jet that ferried seven presidents, and blockbuster exhibits ranging from Abraham Lincoln to the Vatican.
The library, northwest of Los Angeles in Simi Valley, has hosted many GOP presidential candidate debates and such world leaders as Lech Walesa, Margaret Thatcher, Mikhail Gorbachev and Brian Mulroney.
The 22,000-square-foot library is also credited with preserving 300 acres of pristine land, with some of the best views in eastern Ventura County.
This is a breaking story; watch for updates
Source: Orange County Register
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