CNN
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Republican presidential candidate Will Hurd said Sunday he was working to “get all the qualifications” to qualify for next month’s first GOP primary debate in Milwaukee.
But when it came to the requirement to pledge support for the eventual GOP nominee, even if it’s former President Donald Trump, Hurd said, “I can’t lie to get access to a microphone.”
“I’m not going to support Donald Trump. I recognize the impact he has on my ability to get on the debate stage, but I can’t lie,” the former Texas congressman told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union”.
Hurd, who launched her presidential bid in late June, previously told CNN that she “will not sign any kind of pledge, and I don’t think the parties should try to manipulate who should be on a debate stage.” .
To qualify for the debate, Republican candidates must meet certain polling and donor thresholds set by the RNC. They must also sign a commitment “in agreement with supporting the party’s eventual candidate”, the committee said.
RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel has touted the pledge as a “no brainer” and a means to avoid division within the GOP. But there has been resistance among certain 2024 GOP hopefuls to pledge to support Trump, the current front-runner, who faces mounting legal troubles, including two impeachments.
Chris Christie, another GOP presidential candidate, has slammed the pledge as a “useless idea.”
“It’s only in the era of Donald Trump that you need somebody to sign something in a pledge. So I think it’s a bad idea,” the former New Jersey governor told CNN last month. But he claimed he would do whatever it took “to get on stage to try to save my party and save my country from going down the path of being led by three-time loser Donald Trump.”
Another GOP hopeful, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, has pushed to modify the pledge and said he didn’t think it should be a requirement to participate in the debates.
“You have to make the pledge based on the fact that Donald Trump is not going to be our nominee and you’re sure of that. So you can sign a statement saying you’re going to support the party’s nominee. You know, I’m not going to support, just as other voters will not support, someone for president who is impeached,” Hutchinson told ABC News last month.
Trump has suggested on several occasions that he may not participate in the first Republican presidential debate. Asked in February by conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt whether he would support the eventual GOP nominee if it weren’t him, the former president said, “It would have to depend on who the nominee was.”
