I'm Trying To Figure This One Out

I found this today:

During the third debate, Vivek Ramaswamy called for RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel to resign, citing the party's "culture of losing." Now, Ron DeSantis is throwing more gasoline on the fire, announcing that he is going to defy a threat from McDaniel to disqualify any candidate who attends an upcoming forum in Iowa.

According to an October 28th letter, the RNC has deemed the Family Leader Thanksgiving Forum, hosted by Bob Vander Plaats, to be a "debate." That would supposedly violate the pledge the candidates signed in order to participate in the RNC debates, though there's a good case to be made they are stretching the definition of term to absurd lengths.

But I went to Real Clear Politics for the latest Republican polling average and found this:

Trump 58.5
DeSantis 14.4
Haley 9.0
Ramaswamy 4.7

Then I found this at The Hill:

Fewer than 7 million people watched Wednesday night’s third Republican presidential primary debate on television, the lowest of the debates so far this cycle.

NBC News’s broadcast of the third GOP debate, which aired in prime time from 8-10 p.m., delivered 6.8 million viewers on linear television, including 1.3 million in the advertiser-coveted 25-54 age demographic, according to Nielsen Media Research.

So the RNC is threatening to kick candidates out of future debates if any attends an event the RNC deems a competing debate, except that fewer and fewer people are watching the official RNC debates, and the one Republican who's doing by far the best in the polls is skipping those same RNC sanctioned debates.

And then I found this:

During an appearance on Fox News with host Laura Ingraham, McDaniel defended her record and addressed criticism about her leadership. Ingraham brought up the calls for McDaniel’s resignation and asked her to respond.

McDaniel started by deflecting, putting the attention on President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party.

. . . Ingraham then brought up the controversy over the GOP’s performance in Virginia, which was disappointing, to say the least. McDaniel was again criticized for not providing financial assistance for Republican candidates running in the state. She claimed the state Republican Party told her they did not need help, an argument that was later debunked.

“I know at one point you said that you were not asked for money in Virginia, but a Republican source familiar with the Youngkin team in Virginia told the angle late tonight that that is false. And there, meaning your story keeps changing,” Ingraham said.

As best I can parse this out, Ms McDaniel is claiming that criticism of her role at the RNC is misguided, because the RNC is irrelevant. We'll have to see how this pans out, but right now, the leasding Republican candidate has bypassed the RNC debates because in his estimation, they're irrelevant. Fewer and fewer people are watching the RNC debates because in their estimation, they're irrelevant. And the RNC chair is saying she shoud keep her job, because she's irrelavant.