Democratic presidential primary candidate Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) slammed presidential candidates on both sides of the aisle for refusing to debate.
Phillips called out former President Donald Trump, President Joe Biden, and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley for their refusal to participate in any future debates.
On Tuesday, an upcoming debate that was to be hosted by ABC News in New Hampshire was canceled after Haley said she would not debate again unless Trump, who has been absent from all of the past GOP presidential primary debates, was on stage.
“Donald Trump won’t debate. Joe Biden won’t debate. Nikki Haley won’t debate,” Phillips wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “I will debate anyone.”
“We’ve had five great debates in this campaign. Unfortunately, Donald Trump has ducked all of them,” Haley said in a statement. “He has nowhere left to hide. The next debate I do will either be with Donald Trump or with Joe Biden. I look forward to it.”
Trump won the Iowa caucuses on Monday with 51.% of the vote, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) received 21.2% of the vote, and Haley received 19.1%. Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy suspended his presidential campaign and endorsed Trump after receiving 7.7% of the vote.
While Haley placed third in the results, she claimed that the Republican primary was now a “two-person race.”
Phillips, who has been critical of the Democratic National Committee and Biden for a lack of debates on the Democratic side, added that “democracy dies without debate.”
