CLEVELAND, Ohio- Though polls show he is the clear front- runner for the 2024 Republican nomination, former president Donald Trump confirmed this week that he will not participate in the first presidential debate on Wednesday in Milwaukee.

it will feature top candidates among the crowded GOP field of contenders hoping  to win Republican and other support.

More specifically, the real estate mogul, stating that the public already “knows who I am,” Trump wrote on social media Sunday that  “I will therefore not be doing the debates!”

A Trump adviser , however, has said  that the former president could still decide to participate in a later primary debate.

Wednesday’s primary debate is the first relative to the upcoming 2024 presidential election, and sources say the former president had been telling advisors and others that he will skip the debate, which comes on the heels of his latest indictment.

A grand jury in Georgia voted Aug 14 to indict  Trump and 18 affiliates in Fulton County District Attorney Fanie Willis' investigation into 2020 election interference.

The former president branded this latest indictment, a widespread 14-count indictment, another witch hunt to try to derail his candidacy for president as campaign donations continue to pile up after each indictment he faces.

Willis is Black, and this latest indictment marks the fourth time the former president has been indicted since last year announcing that he is making a third bid for the presidency, and in 2024 in a crowded field of GOP wannabees. The 18 co-defendants, charged collectively with 41 felony counts all together, include former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, also the former mayor of New York City, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Jeffrey Clark. Read the full 97-page indictment here.

Giuliani, charged with 13 counts, said in a statement that the indictments are an attempt to silence free speech and are "an affront to Democracy."

The former president, still a big wig with the Republican Party and his political base, was also charged in Florida with illegally hoarding classified files at his estate there, Mar-a-Lago, and refusing to hand them back when asked, among other charges.

• Trump's third indictment was unveiled some three weeks ago in Washington DC. where he is accused of crimes relative to the Jan. 6 insurrection and his unsuccessful efforts to overturn the 2020 election that President Biden undoubtedly won.

   

• Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.