And then there were four. The final four Republican presidential candidates not named Trump to participate in the fourth RNC debate have been announced. The candidates who qualified for an invitation are Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Chris Christie.

To be honest, I’m surprised that Christie made the cut. Yesterday I posted a little round-up of what is happening in the Republican primary and I was dubious that Christie would be on the stage tomorrow night in Alabama. Never mind. He qualified and he’ll be on the stage.

The RNC appears to have let Christie, who did not seem to clear all their polling requirements, into the debate hinging upon a survey that was conducted ahead of Sept. 15 — the start of the qualification window outlined by the RNC for this debate.

A little tidbit I heard Monday was that the RNC doesn’t notify the candidates about who is and isn’t invited to participate until 8:00 p.m. two nights before the scheduled debate. I didn’t know that. That seems like it is cutting it awfully close but it is the terms to which the candidates agreed. They were at the highest level so far. Christie’s participation was in question because of his low polling numbers.

To participate in the debate, candidates had to meet the Republican National Committee’s debate requirements of at least 80,000 unique donors, with at least 200 unique donors per state or territory in at least 20 states or territories, and garnering at least 6 percent in two approved national polls or 6 percent in one national poll and 6 percent in polls of two different early-primary states.

The wind is at Nikki Haley’s back right now. The media is treating her as their favorite Republican ever since she received the Koch endorsement and all the perks that come with it – the big bucks and the ground operation. Other big donors like Jamie Dimon are looking at her candidacy. He urged voters to vote for Nikki “even if you are a very liberal Democrat.”

“Even if you’re a very liberal Democrat, I urge you, help Nikki Haley too,” Dimon, 67, told attendees of The New York Times DealBook Summit on Wednesday.

“Get a choice on the Republican side that might be better than Trump.”

He wants a different Republican candidate than Trump but he said he will support Trump if he is elected in 2024. Take it all with a grain of salt, I say. I don’t think “very liberal Democrats” is the demographic that any Republican candidate courts.

Trump will do a town hall with FNC’s Sean Hannity tonight during Hannity’s time slot. They will do that in Davenport, Iowa. Trump will attend a fundraiser for his campaign as the RNC debate goes on.

The RNC debate will be a little different. It will be in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, at the University of Alabama. It is a very red state that will easily go to the Republican nominee. The debate will be aired on NewsNation and streamed on Rumble

The moderators will be Elizabeth Vargas, the anchor of NewsNation’s “Elizabeth Vargas Reports”; Megyn Kelly, the former Fox News and NBC News anchor who now hosts “The Megyn Kelly Show” on Sirius XM; and Eliana Johnson, editor-in-chief of The Washington Free Beacon.

It will be a little different because I think it will be the most conservative-friendly one so far. There is no Univision commie and two of the three moderators won’t be NBC hosts. I think it will make the event more pleasant to watch.

All of the candidates have called for Trump to participate but that isn’t happening. Trump has been clear that he does not plan to debate. I won’t be surprised if he skips all the debates. I don’t think he or Joe Biden will agree to debate if Trump is the nominee. Neither of them is doing much campaigning and both look as though they feel entitled to not have to do much of anything to receive their party’s nomination. That’s a shame. Voters deserve better than two candidates who expect coronations, not elections.