trump was not invited to this event by erick erickson. this might have been an opportunity for some of the other candidates to break out with the conservative base here in georgia. we heard that donald trump made his way into this conversation. what's the willingness you see from these candidates to do that, to at least make a turn coming into the debate next week? >> we're just not seeing it. with donald trump making the decision, which from a cold, hard political calculation probably makes sense for him to skip this first debate, probably skip the second debate that fox is hosting. i think his calculation will be different in the debates in the early states. that puts the ball in the court of the other candidates. they have the capacity to make him regret that decision if they use his absence to make a case against him that he's not there to rebut. as we get closer to the debate, we don't see candidates beyond chris christie and asa hutchinson who are willing to do that. ultimately, if you want to beat someone who's ahead of you, you've

let's talk about this with erick erickson. he does the erick erickson show.dropped their contributions to ron desantis. reportedly over disagreements with how he is emphasizing some of these social issues. robert bigelow told reuters extremism isn't going to get you elected. what do you think? should desantis and his campaign manager take these messages to heart as they continue the campaign shakeup? these are donors that thinks desantis needs to be able to win over these independents that donald trump lost in 2020. >> i wouldn't necessarily take the billionaire donors' advice on. this even within the gop they tend to be more moderate than where the base is. his message hasn't changed. i've talked to people at the superpac, never back down, people around desantis. and the number one thing that i shear the message. desantis is the message. and the message is still predominant di live anti-woke, which everyone knows. he has pivoted to an economic message nationwide in a big speech and op-ed, but it hasn't trickled down to the campaign trail. people still don't

erick erickson, really by design wanted to ensure that trump was not a focus. wide-ranging 45-minute interviews with candidates over the last several days where trump really did not come up much. but after christie left the stage, he did address reporters and really attacked trump for not participating in next week's first republican debate. >> there's no other conclusion to come to that he's both afraid of me and of defending his record. if i had his record, i'd be nervous about showing up too. let's face it, guys. by wednesday, he's going to be out on bail in four different jurisdictions. when are we going to stop thinking that's normal? when are we going to allow our country to understand again that nominating someone who's out on bail in four jurisdictions is a not a winning formula? >> reporter: so vote trump remains dominant in the polls. i have spoken to some conservatives here who have indicated that are ready to move on from trump. two georgia women told me they are considering supporting governor desantis in the primary. fred. >> eva mckekend, thank y

>> well, we should start by saying the reason trump is not there is that erick erickson chose not toe simply said he thought it would be like theater. trump would say maybe i'll come, maybe i won't and wouldn't show up. he decided to cut to the chase. he's also told this parade of presidential candidates he does not want to talk about donald trump. he wants to focus on the issues. chris christie in the sound bite you just played was one of the exceptions who went after trump directly on the stage with erickson. they've been focusing for the most part on the issues. that's different. all we're hearing from many of us in the journalism profession and others is what do you think about trump. >> how have the candidates been adhering to that? we know chris christie has done his own thing. have the audience been receptive to candidates focusing on things other than donald trump? >> yeah, they have been. he's got about 1500 people there. this is a very popular event. one thing that was interesting is ron desantis appeared yesterday. desantis has really been falling in the polls. suddenly th

. >> erick erickson, a popular radio host organized the event.ho participated avoided speaking about trump or his legal troubles. cnn's eva mckend reports. >> reporter: conservative activists from across the region had the opportunity to hear from a number of 2024 republican hopefulses. on this final day they heard from vivek ramaswamy and chris christie. ramaswamy focuses his remarks on raling against corporate diversity efforts as well as talking about the importance of restoring patriotism in this country. for his part, christie talking about school choice, public safety and strengthening america's foreign policy. trump not a focus of this event. erick erickson who put this on did not invite trump and was very deliberate in not asking the candidates in these 45-minute wide-ranging interviews for the most part about trump. still, after christie left the stage, he addressed reporters and attacked trump for skipping out on next week's first republican debate. >> there's no other conclusion to come to, that he's both afraid of me and afraid of def

. >>> conservative radio show host erick erickson is hosting presidential candidates. >> it includingormer president donald trump was not invited. eva mckend joins us. good morning. this is the day of the two-day event. former governor chris christie will be there today. who else is speaking? >> reporter: good morning to you both. in terms of presidential candidates, it's just former new jersey governor chris christie and vivek ramaswamy. this group will hear from a number of conservative activists as well. listen, this is a really unique opportunity for these candidates because with trump not invited, sort of taking up all the oxygen and the security detail that arises when trump comes and goes, they've had an opportunity to have these wide-ranging conversations with conservative radio host erick erickson, and what we've seen is them touch on domestic policy, foreign policy, and get into the personal of what it's like being out on the campaign trail. >> ron desantis, mike pence spoke yesterday. what did they say? >> reporter: yeah. they both spoke yesterday, and for the most part it

he was down in atlanta with erick erickson.n. that is your right i understand that. i have it no problem with that the thing is that is three years ago. if you are still mad about that, quit complaining about that, sign up to be a poll worker. be a poll watcher. get involved in the process. >> bret: leslie, what do you think? >> i have to tell you, honestly, he -- governor kemp was in the running for my winner tonight on winners and losers based on that. because i'm hearing a lot of the same sentiments not just from voters but even from my own friends and family members who are republicans and who want to move on. they want to move on from 2020 and they want to move on from donald trump. interestingly enough, i agree with both you and byron 100 percent of what they said so far. i wanted to add to what byron said as well. when you look at all of these candidates with the exception of chris christie. mike pence and ron desantis. the rest are running for vice president so they are going to be careful add tiptoeing on top of the. d

erick erickson who put this on did not invite trump. it was very deliberate in not asking the candidates in the 45-minute wide ranging interviews for the most part about trump. still, after christi left the stage he addressed reporters and he attacked trump for skipping out on next week's first ever debate. >> there's no other conclusion to jump to. let's face it, guys, by wednesday he's going to be out on bail in four different jurisdictions. that really -- when are we going to stop thinking that's normal? when are we going to allow our country to understand again that nominating someone who's out on bail in four jurisdictions is not a winning formula. >> reporter: though trump remains dominant in the polls, there is still an appetite to move on from trump. spoke to people seriously supporting governor desantis. >>> in the investigation into hunter biden, "the new york times" reported prosecutor david weiss appeared to end his probe earlier this year without any charges against the president's son. that changed around the time two irs

erick erickson did not invite trump and it was deliberate in asking them in the 45 minute wide rangings for the most part about trump. still, after christie left the stage he addressed reporters and he attacked trump on skipping out on next week's first ever debate. >> there's no other conclusion to come to, he's afraid of me and defending his record. if i had his record, i'd be nervous about showing up, too. let's face it, guys. on wednesday he's going to be out on bail in four different jurisdictions. when are we going to stop thinking that's normal? when are we going to allow our country to understand again that nominating someone who's out on bail in four jurisdictions is not a winning formula. >> reporter: though trump remains dominant in the polls, there is still an appetite from some republican primary voters to move on from trump. some people are seriously considering supporting governor desantis. eva mckend, cnn, atlanta. >>> guatemalans hit the polls in five hours to choose a new president. it is plagued by problems of violence and it's causing an outflow of people. a 64-year

in the mix taking up the oxygen, they had about 45 minutes each with conservative radio host erick ericksoncame up with all of them was to limit the scope of the federal government, clamp down on the bureaucracy. they also discussed a w50id range of issues including immigration, other domestic policy matters and foreign policy as well. many of these candidates will be on the debate stage next week. there's no indication that most of them will try to take on trump directly. we spoke to former vice president mike pence and it seems as though he's going to try to use that platform to make his case against president biden and try to argue why he would be the best candidate to go up against president biden in a general election. victor, amara? >> eva mckend, thank you so much. >>> so the price of buying a home just got more expensive as the federal reserve's historic rate-hiking campaign continues. will we see another rate hike before the end of the year? my relationship with my credit cards wasn'good. i got into debt in college and, no matter how much i paid, it followed me everywhere. between

candidates total are set to speak at the two-day event hosted by radio hosts and frequent trump critic erick ericksone theme is forward, which way? while the 2024 hopefuls largely focus on their aspirations, agendas, the top republican in the state did not. trump's litany of legal woes prompted this warning from georgia governor brian kemp. >> democrats want us to be focused on things like this so we're not focused on joe biden's record. it's insanity we're having to deal with this. it should be such an easy path for us to win the white house back. we have to tell people what we are for. and then we have to have a candidate that can win the election. >> we should note the governor says he may be compelled to testify in trump's upcoming trial. and now brand new cnn reporting peeling back the curtain a little bit revealing exactly how the 2024 hopefuls are spending final precious moments preparing for next week's first republican primary debate. this from cnn. what more are we learning about how we're getting ready? >> reporter: phil the memory of donald trump's past debate performances forcing these c

. >> this morning, republican nominees are speaking at an event in atlanta with erick erickson.ing to focus on policy issues. is this something that could maybe work for these candidates going forward when the entire oxygen is about donald trump in the republican world? >> i mean, i think these candidates would hope so. i think the reality is that trump is going to be a factor in this debate whether or not he shows up. we have heard reporting from cnn that trump is gaming out ways to steal the thunder for that. there's a possibility he tries to show up last minute. some suggested he could coordinate his surrender to authorities to coincide with the debate, which would sweep headlines. candidates need to be prepared to address the issue of donald trump. as "the wall street journal" reported earlier this week, fox anchors are going to ask questions about him. it's not an issue they can avoid. >> jonathan, i'm wondering, when you see the players that so far have been able to get to that debate, what do you think are the biggest pitfalls for whom and why? >> i think the biggest pitf

right now you see him talking to erick erickson.'s seen a recent uptick in the primary polls. a new fox news poll has his support in double digits among republican voters, third behind donald trump and ron desantis. let's bring in symone sanders townsend. he's a fascinating character, because at the beginning of his campaign i spoke to him a couple of times on the telephone. he seemed to be a really sharp guy. i didn't know exactly where his campaign was going. but since then, it's taken quite a few fascinating detours. he says he wants to abolish the fbi. it ends up while he's donald trump's biggest defender on the campaign trail, you know, he was very critical of donald trump in his book as it pertained to the election. you have sort of conspiracy theories that he seems to be sort of wallowing around in. again, a guy with a lot of talent. at the same time, though, he seems to be playing, in my opinion, to the lowest common denominator in the republican base. what did you find out talking to him? >> you know, vivek ramaswamy is a 3