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title: Candidates Discuss Absent Donald Trump at the Third Republican Debate | TIME
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* Politics

# Candidates Discuss Absent Donald Trump at the Third Republican Debate

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<!-- video src="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Qti8aEt9.m3u8" -->
## Video: Candidates Discuss Absent Donald Trump at the Third Republican Debate

[Watch (HLS stream): Candidates Discuss Absent Donald Trump at the Third Republican Debate](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Qti8aEt9.m3u8) (1:09)

![Candidates Discuss Absent Donald Trump at the Third Republican Debate](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Qti8aEt9/poster.jpg?width=720)

_Published 2023-11-09. The third Republican presidential debate opened Wednesday with a sharp question about the one candidate not on stage - Donald Trump - who once again skipped the event citing his commanding early lead in the party's 2024 primary._


---

Nov 9, 2023 2:20 PM UTC

---

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---


## Transcript

Good evening. Everyone walking to the Republican presidential debate. Now. Do you look where we are now? It's a lot different than we were in 2016 and Donald Trump's a lot different guy. Then he was in 2016. He owes it to you to be on this stage and explain why he should get another chance. He should explain why he didn't have Mexico pay for the border wall. He should explain why he racked up so much that he should explain why he didn't drain the swamp and he said Republicans were going to get tired of winning when we saw last night. I'm sick of Republicans losing I can tell you that I think he was the right president at the right time.

I don't think he's the right president. Now, I think that he put us 8 trillion dollars in debt and our kids are never going to forgive us for that. I think the fact that he used to be right on Ukraine and in foreign issues now he's getting weak in the knees and trying to be friendly again. Got to keep themselves out of jail and courtrooms cannot leave this party or this country.

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