The Ron DeSantis presidential campaign fired back at the hosts of ‘The View’ on Friday after the panel compared the Florida governor to a comic book villain and mocked a clip of him explaining a controversial education reform in his state.

‘Booo,’ co-host Joy Behar said after a clip of DeSantis was played on Thursday’s show.  

‘He’s lying,’ co-host Sonny Hostin added before co-host Whoopi Goldberg compared him to a Batman villain.

‘You know what he’s like? Do you remember The Penguin on Batman?’ Goldberg said before mocking the governor’s voice. The panel then continued to slam the DeSantis campaign and argue that he’s not a threat to win the GOP nomination.

The DeSantis campaign responded on Friday telling Fox News Digital the clip shows the panel is ‘out of touch.’

‘Like Team Trump, the liberal, out-of-touch women of the View claim Ron DeSantis is not a threat, and then spend a lot of time attacking him, which means we are right over the target,’ DeSantis spokesperson Carly Atchison said. 

‘Unfortunately for these very rational and thoughtful women, when Ron DeSantis is president, the American people will not be paying for their ninth COVID booster.’

The DeSantis campaign also posted a clip of the program on its ‘war room’ account on X, formerly known as Twitter.

‘The highly thoughtful and intellectual women of the View lose their minds over Ron DeSantis, Part CXXVIII,’ the caption read. 

A representative for The View did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

Maren Morris announced she’s leaving country music, and in case you haven’t heard it’s all Donald Trump’s fault. Country music fans everywhere should send the former president a thank you note. 

She claims the same fans responsible for her success, you know the ones who have deep roots in God, family and country — are suddenly misogynistic, racist, homophobic, transphobic and phobophobic. OK, I made that last one up. 

But apparently the talking points arrived from her recording studio in LA, and she dutifully checked off all the wokeified buzz words to secure her seat at the politically correct pop music table when she begins her second act. 

Not that she needed to prove her woke bona fides. She already had an impressive record. Ever since she landed in Nashville she’s been insufferable. 

Earlier this year Morris bragged about introducing her 2-year-old to drag queens at a pro-LGBTQ event, and dared the state of Tennessee to arrest her. This was weeks after the state banned drag shows near schools. Why are these people so angry they can’t sexualize kids?

She’s crowned herself the authority on all things toxic, and as far as Morris is concerned what qualifies as ‘really toxic’ — not just the regular kind of toxic — is Jason Aldean’s ‘Try that in a Small Town.’ You know, the song that condemns violent crime in our country.

According to the book of Morris, what’s definitely not toxic is her flame throwing at Aldean’s wife Brittany, who seems to live rent free in her head.

Last year Brittany posted a video on Instagram applying makeup and thanking her parents for not changing her gender during her tomboy phase because she loves her ‘girly life.’

That enraged Karen, I mean Maren, who’s a proponent of child sex change surgeries and obsessed with allowing drag queens to shake their stuff in front of kids. What’s next an LA strip club selfie with her toddler? 

Still, Morris took the classy not trashy road — just kidding.

COUNTRY MUSIC STAR SHARES WHY HE’S LEAVING THE INDUSTRY AND HEADING INTO MINISTRY: ‘WHAT I’M CALLED TO DO’ 

She went straight to name calling — starting with ‘scumbag human.’Followed up later by, ‘You know, I’m glad she didn’t become a boy either because we really don’t need another a**hole dude in the world…’

And putting an exclamation on it all, ‘F** all the way off to Insurrection Barbie and the fellow IB’s trolling this comment section with their hypocritical, hateful a**es.’ 

In other words, not just Brittany but anyone who disagrees with Morris. If you’re counting, most of the country music demographic thinks cutting off kids’ genitals is a really bad idea.

Chaser: Still ‘Karening’ Morris has said of all of country music, ‘I hate feeling like I need to be the hall monitor of treating people like human beings in country music,’ and it ‘got worse — irreparable, almost’ after Trump got elected. 

It must be exhausting being so morally superior.

Morris was still so triggered by Brittany that she ‘didn’t feel comfortable going’ to the CMAs last year, except to show up halfway through the event, just in time for the presentation of the award she was nominated for, Album of the Year.

She lost, and she left.

Grossly overestimating her importance, Morris said of country music, ‘I thought I’d like to burn it to the ground and start over. But it’s burning itself down without my help.’ 

Not exactly. In August history was made when country music took the top three spots for the first time ever on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. No fires to put out there. 

Playing the role of the angry, narcissistic victim, she may have failed at burning country music to the ground, but she’s certainly burned the bridge to an industry run by woke brass who were more than happy to hand her multiple CMA and ACM awards and throw their support behind an extreme leftist female artist.

As far as country fans are concerned, pop music can come get their person. We’re done with her.

It would appear as though the rise of Jason Aldean and Oliver Anthony’s music may have sent her over the edge. Aldean’s song, ‘Try that in a Small Town’ went straight to number one on the iTunes chart right before it scored him his first number one spot on Billboard Hot 100.

Almost overnight Anthony went from playing his guitar on his Virginia farm to becoming a household name. ‘Rich Men North of Richmond,’ a song about the discrepancy between the working class and the elites that run the show in Washington, shot to number one on Billboard Hot 100, making him the first artist with no prior chart history to ever debut at number one.

In addition to Billboard, he claimed the number one spot on the ITunes chart for his debut song and then landed in the number two and three spots with two more songs.

Relatable is the only explanation for the massive skyrocketing success of Anthony, as well as Aldean’s ‘Try That in a Small Town’.

People relate to what’s real. You can’t fake authentic. 

While Maren Morris is busy ‘hall monitoring’ the unenlightened among us for saying it’s a really bad idea to cut off kids’ private parts, artists like Aldean and Anthony are writing songs that connect with average Americans. 

And when given the choice Morris would rather sell out her audience than connect with them. She’ll pick opportunistic over authentic ever single time.

Her new EP, ‘The Bridge,’ is supposed to symbolically connect her past in country music to her future. I think we’ve established that she’s already burned the country music bridge.

Ironically, it was released last week just as her temper tantrum declaring her country music exit was kicking into high gear. Shocking, I know.

She calls the two songs on the EP ‘incredibly key to my next step.’ In the video for ‘The Tree,’ she’s shown lighting a match and watching a tree burn. Somebody please check on her. She’s obsessed with burning stuff down.

The tree is supposed to symbolize country music, which has been so ‘draining’ and unhealthy for her — or something. We’re just supposed to know that she’s the victim. 

The second song is self-explanatory — ‘Get the Hell Out of Here.’ 

I’m fairly confident I speak for most country music fans when I say we couldn’t agree more.

EXCLUSIVE — Republican senators are calling on President Biden to honor Respect Life Month in October with a display at the White House to match the one shown for LGBTQ+ Pride Month last June.

In a letter sent to the White House on Friday, Sens. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., and Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., challenged Biden to show ‘inclusivity’ to pro-life Americans by displaying the Pro-Life Flag prominently at the White House and federal agency buildings during the month of October.

‘Earlier this year, your administration displayed the Pride Flag at the White House for Pride Month,’ the senators wrote. ‘We are asking you to also honor Respect Life Month and fly the Pro-Life Flag to send a powerful statement that our country celebrates Americans of all beliefs and is committed to protecting innocent and vulnerable life.’

‘We know that the commitment to protecting and loving both unborn children and mothers is shared by Americans in every state and territory across our great nation,’ the letter continues. ‘Flying the Pro-Life Flag during Respect Life Month would show the federal government stands alongside its citizens in upholding the unalienable truth that all people, including the unborn, have a right to life.’

In October, the Catholic Church in the United States celebrates Respect Life Month and the first Sunday of October is designated Respect Life Sunday. The time is meant as a period of reflection on why every human life is valuable and how to ‘build a culture that protects life from conception to natural death,’ according to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. 

READ THE LETTER BELOW. APP USERS: CLICK HERE

Earlier this year, the Biden administration received backlash over its Pride Month display at the White House for appearing to violate U.S. Flag Code.

Biden celebrated the LGBT community in a social media post, that revealed a set of flags hanging from the White House that faced the South Lawn. The display includes a rainbow-colored Pride flag flanked by two American flags.

Social media users argued the display violated a section of the U.S. Flag Code that mandates the American flag be in the center of any display featuring multiple national flags or pennants.

The Pro-Life Flag Republicans want Biden to display next month was created by the Pro-Life Flag Project as a unifying symbol for those who oppose abortion. 

‘We believe that creating, promoting, and proudly flying a unified, freely-reproducible, international pro-life flag will wildly help the movement in its already-unified aim: ending abortion,’ said spokesman James Chapman. 

‘Just as the rainbow flag has raised awareness for and significantly contributed to the success of the LGBTQ movement or as the Thin Blue Line flag has come to represent support for law enforcement, flying or displaying the pro-life flag will be a means by which everyday pro-life supporters can stand in solidarity with the larger pro-life movement,’ he continued. 

‘People around the world, regardless of their stance on abortion, will see the flag, know its meaning, and be compelled to think about the reality of abortion. Through positive symbolism within the design, the flag will also serve to positively brand the movement that has, in many mainstream currents, been so vilified and misrepresented.’ 

Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.

The Democratic primary for a special election in South Carolina’s vacant Senate seat is locked in a tight race, with a minimal number of votes separating the candidates.After counting all the regular ballots on Wednesday, state Representative Deon Tedder held an 11-vote lead over state Representative Wendell Gillard, out of the 4,173 votes cast in the runoff.The race is highly likely to proceed to a recount since state law mandates it when the margin is within 1 percentage point.

The Democratic nominee for a special election for an open South Carolina Senate seat appears to have come down to a handful of votes.

With all the regular ballots counted Wednesday, state Rep. Deon Tedder led state Rep. Wendell Gillard by 11 votes out of the 4,173 cast in the runoff, according to the South Carolina Election Commission’s results.

The Charleston County Election Commission will decide the fate of 10 provisional ballots later this week and two outstanding overseas military ballots haven’t been returned and face a Wednesday night deadline, county Elections Director Isaac Cramer told The Post and Courier.

The race will almost certainly go to a recount. State law requires it when the margin is within 1 percentage point.

The Senate seat is open because Democratic Sen. Marlon Kimpson resigned after 10 years in office to take a job developing trade policy with President Joe Biden’s administration.

MISSING F-35 JET WAS ‘ALMOST GOING INVERTED’ BEFORE CRASH, WITNESS SAYS
Gillard, 69, won the three-way primary two weeks ago with 47% of the vote. But South Carolina requires a majority to win the nomination. Tedder won 39% in the primary, while state Rep. JA Moore received 15%.

The winner faces Republican Rosa Kay in Nov. 7 general election. The district is heavily Democratic, running from the Charleston peninsula into North Charleston.

If elected Tedder, 33, would be the youngest member of the state Senate. Kimpson endorsed the attorney and two-term state House member along with several other prominent Charleston area Democrats.

Tedder also got the endorsement of U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, the most prominent Democrat in the state.

That rankled Gillard, who said if he loses once results are finalized, he might challenge Clyburn in 2024 if the 83-year-old runs for a 17th term.

‘He gets an attitude if you’re not kissing his ring. I ain’t kissing no ring. I’m not ever going to do that in politics,’ Gilliard told the Charleston newspaper.

<!–>

–>

In just three years under President Joe Biden, our hunting-and-fishing heritage is under attack in ways we could have never thought or imagined. 

Through the weaponization of federal agencies like the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and even the Department of Education, the Biden administration is pandering to the anti-hunting, anti-fishing extreme flank of supporters and launching an all-out assault on our outdoors way of life. 

With the help of Biden and the federal government, activists are pulling out all stops to not only chip away at our hunting-and-fishing heritage, but to abolish it altogether.  

Maintaining their promises and commitments to extreme anti-hunting, anti-gun radicals, the Biden administration last year started a process to ban lead ammunition on federal public land. Through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, regulations were proposed that ban lead ammunition in national wildlife refuges across the country.  

By all accounts, the action by the USFWS is the first step toward complete prohibition of lead ammunition and tackle on any public lands where you would hunt and fish. 

Earlier this year, the Biden administration blocked key federal funding under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) for schools with hunting and archery programs. This federal funding cut would negatively impact millions of American students who participate in those hunting and archery programs.  

According to the National Archery in the Schools Program, 1.3 million students from 9,000 schools across 49 states are enrolled in archery courses. The number of students participating in hunter education programs in our schools is even higher.

Beholden to radical activists, Biden’s Department of Education is depriving millions of kids of longstanding educational and enrichment programs that help foster relationships with role models, build self-esteem, and develop lifelong skills that last well beyond their school years.  

In fact, according to a Forbes report, many experts are warning that defunding hunting and archery programs will contribute to the current mental health crisis. 

While some try to downplay the federal government’s anti-outdoors agenda, the threat to our hunting and fishing way of life is very real. 

It is abundantly clear that the activists who want to put an end to our outdoor heritage are determined, but they should be warned: so are we. 

We won’t take this lying down. We are resolved. And we are willing to fight. 

The International Order of T. Roosevelt is a proactive hunting-and-conservation foundation focused on protecting the rights of hunters and sustaining the North American model of wildlife conservation.  

Through our advocacy arm, T. Roosevelt Action, we are in statehouses around the country promoting the right to hunt and encouraging states to push back against this anti-hunting, anti-fishing radicalism by securing a constitutional amendment enshrining their sacred right to hunt and fish.  

Successfully establishing a right to hunt in every state will play a direct role in ensuring we can grow our sport, allow new hunters to join our ranks and protect the land that T. Roosevelt set aside for such use and charged us to use responsibly. 

Did you know that less than half of the states in the U.S. have an explicit state constitutional right to hunt and fish? That’s right, just 23 states enjoy constitutional clarity affirming our outdoor heritage and confirming our God-given right to hunt and fish. 

T. Roosevelt Action is fighting for hunting and fishing freedom and is bound and determined to grow that number in the next couple of years. As part of that fight, we are engaging a blitz to strategically reach outdoors enthusiasts in four states, educating the public on their right to hunt and fish.  

We are working in Iowa, Ohio, Florida and South Dakota – all priority states with strong hunting-and-fishing traditions that currently lack a constitutional right to hunt and fish. 

It was President Theodore Roosevelt who pioneered the North American model of conservation – the idea that conservation efforts are crucial to our hunting way of life, and that hunters and anglers are crucial to successful conservation. The fight against these anti-hunting and anti-fishing threats is just getting started.  

We will not allow these activists to dismantle and ultimately destroy Roosevelt’s great legacy. Join us in this fight. Stand in the arena with us and do the hard work necessary to protect your right to hunt and fish. Together, we can protect our outdoor heritage for future generations. 

Abraham Lincoln is responsible for one of the boldest and most far-reaching uses of executive powers in American history by his announcement that enslaved people would soon be ‘forever free’ on this day in history, Sept. 22, 1862. 

Dubbed by historians the ‘preliminary’ Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln’s announcement noted that slavery would end in the United States on Jan. 1, 1863 — the date his proclamation would take effect. 

He made the announcement to the nation as the Civil War dragged through its second year. It had grown much deadlier than almost anyone had anticipated. 

‘All persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free,’ Lincoln announced.

The ‘Great Emancipator’ claimed controversial war powers in making the proclamation. 

Lincoln was given the political capital to make the stirring announcement following Union victory in the Battle of Antietam in Maryland just five days earlier.

The bloodshed was shocking, the National Park Services reports, noting that ‘23,000 men had been killed, wounded or listed as missing, the single bloodiest day in the history of the United States. [Confederate General Robert E.] Lee’s first invasion of the North ended as he retreated back into Virginia on the night of September 18.’

The battlefield boost for Lincoln came after the federal army had been outwitted, outmaneuvered and outfought in almost every battle of the first year of the Civil War. 

‘Antietam … showed that the Union could stand against the Confederate army in the Eastern theater,’ writes the American Battlefield Trust.

‘It also gave President Abraham Lincoln the confidence to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation at a moment of strength rather than desperation.’

Lincoln had tried to cajole Congress into making steps to emancipate the nation’s people who lived in bondage.

‘Finally, in the summer of 1862, he shifted the basis for an emancipation strategy to his presumed constitutional ‘war powers’ as commander-in-chief, presenting a draft emancipation proclamation to his cabinet in July,’ writes the National Constitution Center.

‘Although there was no consensus on the existence of such ‘war powers,’ Lincoln issued a preliminary emancipation proclamation on September 22, 1862, and then released a final Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.’

Lincoln commanded in his announcement: ‘I do hereby enjoin upon and order all persons engaged in the military and naval service of the United States to observe, obey, and enforce, within their respective spheres of service, the act, and sections above recited [the pending emancipation of the slaves].’

‘Emancipation would redefine the Civil War, turning it from a struggle to preserve the Union to one focused on ending slavery, and set a decisive course for how the nation would be reshaped after that historic conflict,’ writes History.com. 

For more Lifestyle articles, visit www.foxnews.com/lifestyle.

The Biden administration on Thursday announced plans to remove medical bills from Americans’ credit reports in a push to end what it called coercive debt collection tactics that affect millions of consumers.

Vice President Kamala Harris told reporters that more than 100 million Americans had unpaid medical debt.

‘Many of the debts people have accrued are due to medical emergencies,’ she said. ‘We know credit scores determine whether a person can have economic health and wellbeing, much less the ability to grow their wealth.’

<!–>

–>

FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., and fourteen other GOP leaders introduced a bill Thursday to prevent the White House from declaring gun violence a national health emergency to enact gun control measures.

The bill, known as the Protecting the Right to Keep and Bear Arms Act of 2023, comes as Democratic New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham last week tried to enact an immediate 30-day prohibition on carrying guns in public areas or on state-owned properties in Albuquerque, calling gun violence a public health crisis.

‘Many said that public health emergencies would not be abused to impose gun control, but after we saw the vast expansion of executive power during COVID and the New Mexico governor use a public health emergency to effectively suspend the Second Amendment in her state, no one can doubt that this needs to be addressed,’ Braun said in a statement.

‘We need to set into law that no one can remove the right to defend ourselves and our families with the stroke of a pen.’

The legislation is likely to gain steam in the GOP-led House. U.S. Rep. Michael Cloud also introduced a bill this week with the same name in response to Grisham’s measure. Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, and Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., cosponsored Cloud’s bill and joined the choir of criticisms of Grisham’s move to ban guns. 

A judge blocked Lujan Grisham’s 30-day gun ban on open and concealed weapons, leading the governor to amend the rule to restrict guns at public parks or playgrounds, ‘where we know we have high risk of kids and families,’ she said, according to ABC.

Lujan Grisham said in a statement she refuses ‘to be resigned to the status quo.’

‘Today a judge temporarily blocked sections of our public health order but recognized the significant problem of gun violence in this state, particularly involving the deaths of children,’ she wrote. ‘As governor, I see the pain of families who lost their loved ones to gun violence every single day, and I will never stop fighting to prevent other families from enduring these tragedies.’

In May, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra labeled gun violence a ‘public health crisis’ after a mass shooting at an Atlanta medical office building. Earlier, California officials had written a letter urging Becerra to formally recognize it as a public health emergency.

Braun previously introduced the bill in 2021 and as an amendment in July of this year. 

The bill is co-sponsored by GOP senators Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, Jim Risch of Idaho, Mike Crapo of Idaho, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, John Hoeven of North Dakota, Steve Daines of Montana, Ted Budd of North Carolina, Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Rick Scott of Florida, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Josh Hawley of Missouri.

FIRST ON FOX – The Republican National Committee is warning New Hampshire not to move up the date of their first-in-the-nation presidential primary.

The RNC’s debate committee decided — in consultation with RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel — during a Thursday conference call to issue a warning that it will pull a planned GOP presidential primary debate in New Hampshire if the state leapfrogs Iowa caucuses and moves to the top of the party’s nominating calendar. Sources with knowledge of the call shared the decision with Fox News Digital. 

Republican Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, in an exclusive statement to Fox News a couple of hours later, responded to the RNC.

‘The first presidential primary will be taking place in New Hampshire, regardless of what the political power brokers in Washington, DC think,’ Sununu wrote. ‘We will not be threatened, we will follow our law, and we WILL go first. End of story.’ 

New Hampshire for a century has held the first primary in the race for the White House, and for the past half century has gone second in both the Democratic and Republican nominating calendars, following Iowa’s caucuses.

While the Republican National Committee is not making any dramatic changes to their nominating calendar, the rival Democratic National Committee overwhelmingly voted in early February to dramatically alter the top of its schedule for the 2024 election cycle, bumping Iowa and New Hampshire from their longtime leadoff positions.

According to a nominating calendar proposed by President Biden and approved by the DNC, South Carolina will hold the Democrats’ first primary, on Feb. 3, followed three days later by New Hampshire and Nevada.

But New Hampshire has a nearly half-century-old law that mandates that it hold the first presidential primary, a week ahead of any similar contest. And it’s likely the state will hold its primary on Jan. 23, eight days after Iowa’s caucuses, which are scheduled for Jan. 15. While that would put New Hampshire in non-compliance with the Democrats, it wouldn’t affect the GOP primary.

But Iowa Democrats — who last week voted to also hold their caucuses along with the Republicans on Jan. 15 — are considering complementing their traditional caucus with a mail-in component, which New Hampshire Secretary of State Dave Scanlan warns may make the Iowa Democratic caucuses too similar to a primary, violating the Granite State’s law. The possible move by Iowa Democrats would also violate a new Hawkeye State law that mandates that the caucuses be held in person.

Iowa GOP chair Jeff Kaufmann recently charged in a radio interview that Scanlan was being ‘over-rambunctious’ in potentially moving up the date of the primary. Scanlan returned fire last week, telling reporters that ‘we’re going to take a pretty hard line on any effort to make a traditional caucus look more like a presidential primary.’

The RNC is planning on holding debates in all four of its early voting presidential primary and caucus states — Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina — ahead of their contests.

But the RNC is now warning New Hampshire that a jump to the top of the calendar ahead of Iowa would result in the state’s debate being pulled by the national party committee.

Sununu, who’s been very vocal in criticizing the DNC’s push to move New Hampshire from the top primary position, on Thursday evening fired back at the RNC over their possible pulling of their debate.

‘New Hampshire gives every candidate an even playing field and can catapult candidates to the presidency. Threatening to take a debate away from New Hampshire is a disservice to every campaign and candidate that has worked tirelessly to earn the votes of New Hampshire’s Republican electorate,’ Sununu worte in his statement to Fox News.

And Scanlan also dismissed the RNC warning, saying it would not enter his decision-making process. Asked by the NH Journal if it would impact the date of the primary, New Hampshire’s Secretary of State answered,’In a word, ‘no.’’

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

FIRST ON FOX: The Republican National Committee will raise polling and donor thresholds 2024 primary candidates must reach to make the stage at the third GOP presidential nomination debate, Fox News Digital has learned.

To participate in the third debate, each candidate must have a minimum of 70,000 unique donors to their campaign or exploratory committee, including 200 donors in 20 or more states. The RNC’s debate committee decided on the thresholds during a conference call on Thursday, according to sources with knowledge of the panel’s deliberations. 

The White House hopefuls must also reach 4% support in two national polls, or reach 4% in one national poll and 4% in two statewide polls conducted in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada or South Carolina — the four states that lead off the Republican presidential nominating calendar.

Additionally, candidates are also required to sign a pledge in which they agree to support the eventual Republican presidential nominee. They must agree not to participate in any non-RNC sanctioned debates for the rest of the 2024 election cycle and agree to data-sharing with the national party committee.

The thresholds have been rising for each ensuing debate. To make the first showdown, a Fox News-hosted event in Milwaukee on Aug. 23, the candidates needed to hit 1% in polling and have 40,000 donors. Eight candidates ended up facing off in Milwaukee.

The criteria were raised to 3% in the polls and 50,000 donors for next week’s second debate, a FOX Business-hosted showdown taking place Tuesday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California.

So far, according to a Fox News count, six of the eight candidates who took part in last month’s first GOP presidential nomination debate have already reached the RNC’s criteria.

They are — in alphabetical order — former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence, biotech entrepreneur and political commentator Vivek Ramaswamy, and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who qualified for the first debate, have yet to reach the second showdown’s thresholds.

Former President Donald Trump, who has reached the donor and polling thresholds, did not sign the RNC’s pledge. Pointing to his large lead over his rivals for the nomination, he did not attend the first debate and has already made alternate plans for next week’s showdown.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.