Sledgehammers, Robots and Tightropes: How The GOP Primary Field is Prepping For The First Debate

A week before the first primary debate of the 2024 election cycle, consultants for the super PAC supporting Ron DeSantis posted a trove of documents online laying out how the Florida governor should address Donald Trump on stage, along with the rest of the presidential field. 

The documents gave political junkies early and unusual access to what might be DeSantis’s debate night strategy. The data, which was first reported by The New York Times, underscored a major theme emerging before the Republican primary field meets in Milwaukee on Wednesday.

The GOP primary candidates want to face the twice-impeached, four-time indicted former president on stage. He’s the frontrunner, after all. But if Trump doesn’t show — and he has said he may not — much of the field will be all the happier to attack one another and avoid criticizing Trump. 

“All of the candidates are going to have to deal with Trump, because the anchors have already said that they're going to force the candidates to,” said Gail Gitcho, a Republican political communications consultant unaffiliated with a campaign. “So the question then is, how do you walk that tightrope? Because a lot of the people that are going to be watching this debate are already supportive of Trump.”

So far, much of the primary field has treated attacking Trump like political kryptonite. Polls show that candidates who alienate Trump’s loyal voters will not survive the primary, and if Trump is felled by the 91 felony charges against him or a health issue, the remaining Republican candidates would need to pick up his supporters to win.

That may be why the super PAC Never Back Down advised DeSantis to protect the former president from expected attacks by former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and take a “sledgehammer” to Trump acolyte and first-time candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, a political newcomer who has been rising in the polls. The documents also clued DeSantis in on how his opponents might try to attack him as the evening’s defacto frontrunner.

"We're preparing for anything under the sun,” DeSantis said during a radio appearance on The Guy Benson Show this week, a day before the super PAC memos appeared in the press.

“This was not a campaign memo and we were not aware of it prior to the article. We are by now well accustomed to the attacks from all sides as the media and other candidates realize Ron DeSantis is the strongest candidate best positioned to take down Joe Biden," DeSantis spokesman Andrew Romeo said.

As for being ready for any eventuality, that’s easier said than done, according to Republicans who have watched Trump on the debate stage for the better half of a decade. Trump’s attacks against members of his own party, and his fondness for stoking speculation about whether he’ll even show up, defined his last competitive primary. The 2024 field has to wonder even how best to prepare.

“The debate prep has to be a nightmare for everybody. Having done enough of these, I can’t imagine preparing for two totally different scenarios. Your placement on the stage changes, the focus of the debate changes, how you’re strategically gonna try to get your time,” said an adviser to several presidential campaigns who is also involved in the 2024 race.

DeSantis, who will be at the center of the stage if Trump doesn’t show up, took time to set expectations for Wednesday night during his recent radio appearance. DeSantis will be “the guy that fields the most attacks,” he said, treating it as a badge of honor. 

Those attacks have already started — and they were inflamed by the pro-DeSantis super PAC on Thursday.

DeSantis allies have taken aim at Ramaswamy on social media in recent weeks, and Ramaswamy hit right back after seeing Never Back Down’s debate night intel. He was live on Fox News within hours of the memo appearing in the press.

“I think we have a choice between super PAC puppets who are being propped up with prepped lines and millions of dollars to go along with it. Versus in my case, I’m an outsider. I think of myself as a patriot who speaks the truth,” Ramaswamy said, capitalizing on the super PAC’s advice against him. Ramaswamy’s campaign says that he has not done any traditional debate prep due to his travel schedule.

The Never Back Down super PAC fired back by calling Ramaswamy a “fraud," while Ramaswamy aides began using the robot emoji to rib DeSantis. 

On the other side of the primary field, Christie’s allies say he’ll be ready to bash Trump whether he’s on stage or not. Christie endorsed Trump after he dropped out of the 2016 race and even helped with Trump’s 2020 debate prep, but he’s turned on the former president and has bashed DeSantis and others over their reluctance to criticize Trump.

“When we were practicing law together, Chris prepared like no one I ever saw, ready for any contingency and every question. He did so as a candidate for governor and the same in 2016. I have no doubt he’s doing the same now and ready to debate whether Trump shows or not,” said Bill Palatucci, New Jersey’s Republican National Committeeman and the chair of the pro-Christie Tell It Like It Is super PAC. 

For the lesser-known candidates who haven’t been on the presidential debate stage before and don’t have an appetite for attacking Trump, the mission will be to introduce themselves to voters who are tuning into the primary race for the first time. That includes creating viral moments that campaigns can circulate on social media to gain support and raise money. 

Sen. Tim Scott, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and former Vice President Mike Pence, for example, have yet to crack 10% in national primary polls and will be looking to stand out. 

Appealing to voters is also a major goal for DeSantis, who has struggled to generate momentum in the first few months of his campaign. The Florida governor said this week that voters like him the more they see him, and that it has his rivals worried. 

“They know once voters key in, once they learn about me, my bio, my family, our record and our vision, they know that that’s going to be positive in a Republican primary,” DeSantis said.

But data from DeSantis’s own super PAC contradicts that claim, at least for now. His favorability rating among crucial New Hampshire primary voters has declined by 19 percentage points since March, according to the WPA Intelligence poll that Axiom Strategies posted on its website. Voters’ favorable views of DeSantis began to erode in June, a month after he entered the race and began campaigning in earnest. 

After a difficult summer, the Florida governor’s supporters say that the debate could offer a campaign-defining moment for a candidate who has struggled to step out of Trump’s shadow. But without Trump on stage and after the super PAC memo leak, that opportunity may evaporate, especially if the former president runs his own counter programming on social media or cable news. 

The presidential campaign adviser who spoke with The Messenger said that he struggled to get a ticket to the debate when Trump was expected to appear there. After it became clear that Trump may not go, he was able to secure a seat.