Let the games begin – Live-blogging the first Republican primary debate

It’s debate night and I have to say, I’m ready for it. Let’s see the contenders for the Republican presidential nomination on a stage, all together, and see how they fare against each other. One notable absence will be Donald Trump. Trump, being Trump, is doing his own event in the form of a pre-taped interview with Tucker Carlson. Look for Trump to be doing his own form of live-blogging the debate on his Truth Social account.

Some odd things have been happening today. This morning a pro-DeSantis PAC, the Never Back Down PAC, was suspended on X (formerly Twitter),before it was un-suspended later. When it became accessible again, the account had lost a lot of followers. Hmm. Was it a nefarious act by Team Trump? It is being speculated that pro-Trump supporters reported the account as spam en masse, which led to the suspension.

We can take an educated guess and assume that Ron DeSantis will be the primary target from the other candidates. That includes the Trump partisans, who will be active online.

Everyone get your bingo cards ready for tomorrow night! #GOPDebate pic.twitter.com/JIMycY4NVQ

— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) August 23, 2023

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is in Milwaukee as a Trump surrogate. She’s running hard to be his vice presidential pick if he secures the nomination.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum suffered a leg injury Tuesday as he was playing a pick-up basketball game with staffers. He was taken to a Milwaukee emergency room Tuesday and he has since been released. As I write this beginning to my post, his debate appearance status is in limbo. Will he or won’t he be able to debate? Burgum, 67, suffered a high-grade tear of his Achilles tendon. He’s using crutches to walk now. This staff said he would make a decision about the debate after he completes a walk-through of the debate hall this afternoon.

The debate is scheduled to last two hours. I’ll be watching and live-blogging through-out the event. Check in to see what I have to say. Also, Beege is doing live-blogging with a post, too. You know how it is – we have things to say.