Jimmy Fallon doesn’t have much hope for any Republican presidential hopeful who’s not Donald Trump. The late night host likened Trump’s top competitors to “watching a middle school play” on Tuesday night.
“It was just announced that Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Chris Christie and Vivek Ramaswamy qualify for tomorrow night’s fourth Republican presidential debate. The debate will air on The CW Network and NewsNation,” Fallon said on “The Tonight Show.”” So if you want to know how good of a chance these candidates have, the debate is airing on The CW Network and News Nation.”
“At this point watching these debates is like watching a middle school play,” the late night host continued. “It doesn’t really matter. You just hope they’re having fun up there.”
Fallon went on to note that, once again, Trump opted not to participate in the debate. Instead, the former President attended a town hall that was hosted by Fox News host Sean Hannity.
“We haven’t seen two people that in love since ‘The Golden Bachelor’ finale,” Fallon quipped. “But there was some decent back and forth. Hannity said, ‘Welcome to—’ and then Trump spoke for three hours straight.”
Jokes aside, the pressure is on for the Republican party. The Iowa caucus, which will kick off the 2024 nominating process for the Republican party, is currently less than six weeks away. At the moment, Haley and DeSantis are poised to be Trump’s top rivals. But simply by their appearance in tonight’s debate, Christie and Ramaswamy are still holding on.
In order to make it to tonight’s stage, candidates had to meet a donor and polling criteria that was set by the Republican National Committee. That includes having at least 80,000 unique donors, which including having at least 200 in 20 states or territories, and register at least 6% in either two qualifying national polls in one national poll and two polls from separate early-voting state. Additionally, the RNC requires that candidates pledge their support to the eventual GOP nominee. Trump made headlines earlier this year for his refusal to sign said pledge.
