9.5 Million Watched 2nd Republican Presidential Debate

The number of viewers who tuned in to watch the second Republican presidential debate on Wednesday night declined 27 percent, according to data from Nielsen Media Research.

An estimated 9.5 million people watched the second primary debate without former President Donald Trump, which was aired on Fox News Channel and Fox Business, as well as Univision, the Nielsen company said.

The 9.5 million who watched Wednesday’s debate hosted at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, include nearly 2 million viewers aged 25 to 54, an important group for advertisers. In comparison, the first debate drew an estimated 2.8 million viewers from that age group.

President Trump, the front-runner for the Republican nomination in polls, hasn’t shown up on the debate stage alongside his rivals.

“He should be on this stage tonight,” Mr. DeSantis said. “He owes it to you to defend his record where they added $7.8 trillion to the debt. That set the stage for the inflation we have now.

“Where’s Joe Biden? He’s completely missing in action from leadership. And you know who else is missing in action? Donald Trump is missing in action,” he said.

Mr. Christie said the former president “hides behind the walls of his golf clubs and won’t show up here to answer questions like all the rest of us are up here to answer.”

The third debate is scheduled to be held in Miami on Nov. 8.

“He said he’s not going to attend the debates, plural. And that’s his position—until it’s not,” Chris LaCivita, a senior adviser to President Trump’s 2024 campaign, told reporters following Wednesday’s debate, adding that such events had become more like a contest for “who’s going to be the designated survivor.”

The survey was conducted on Aug. 24–30, beginning on the day when President Trump surrendered himself to authorities at the Fulton County jail on charges related to his alleged efforts to dispute Georgia’s 2020 election results. The case marked the fourth criminal case the former command-in-chief is facing.