This marks the third time Trump has opted to skip a Republican National Committee-sanctioned debate and hold an event of his own instead

Despite the $250 million New York civil fraud trial, Donald Trump still hopes voters will send him back to the White House. The former US president decided to skip the third Republican Presidential Debate and held a rally of his own Wednesday night in Hialeah, Florida. He asked the crowd whether they all “did the right thing by not participating” while highlighting that the last GOP debate was the “lowest-ranked debate ever.” Trump dubbed his rivals “unwatchable” and called Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley, “Ron desanctimonious” and “bird brain” respectively. The ex-POTUS also addressed his ongoing trial, where his daughter Ivanka Trump testified last.

This marks the third time Trump has opted to skip a Republican National Committee-sanctioned debate and hold an event of his own instead. During the GOP debate on November 8, the three Republicans DeSantis, Haley, and Vivek Ramaswamy went after one another while Trump chanted his own praises during the rally only ten miles away. “I’m standing in front of tens of thousands of people right now and it’s on television. That’s a hell of a lot harder to do than a debate,” the ex-president said. “Stop wasting time and resources trying to push weak and ineffective RINOS,” Trump added.