Today is 100 days until Election Day, in a campaign that has totally changed in a week. Donald Trump spent months pushing for debates against Joe Biden, “anytime, anyplace,” with the campaigns finally agreeing to two debates, June 27 and Sept. 10.....CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE>>>
Since the June 27 faceoff caused Biden to drop out and Vice President Kamala Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee, Trump is suddenly cagey about participating in the second forum, complaining that he wants the venue switched from ABC News to Fox News while refusing to confirm he’ll turn up.
The reason is simple. Trump felt he could win the debate against Biden, and he did, or rather, Biden lost, with his halting and tongue-tied performance setting off the Democratic panic that would cause him to step aside. Trump is far less certain about Harris, a former prosecutor with a penchant for both quirky personal anecdotes and witticisms and aggressive, receipts-heavy questioning.
If Biden’s health and mental fortitude were the issue du jour during the last debate, it’ll be hard for Trump not to find himself under a similar loupe, with the 78-year-old now vying to himself become the oldest president ever inaugurated while routinely verging into borderline incoherence during his rambling speeches.
He may be incapable of stopping himself from attacking Harris on her race and sex — recall his “nasty woman” quip and other misogynistic rhetoric during his debates with Hillary Clinton — in a way that’s sure to be off-putting to a lot of independent and moderate voters.
Ducking the debate wouldn’t be the first promise Donald Trump has broken, but it should be noted that he did make a commitment to debate the Democratic nominee in September.
His campaign’s weak excuse that Harris is not the formal nominee falls apart when you consider that neither he nor Biden were their parties’ nominees during last month’s debate, and Harris will with almost total certainty become the Democrats’ nominee by early next month. The squawking about ABC versus Fox is really just casting about for reasons not to have the two up on a stage together.
Debates aren’t the best setting for sober policy discussion, and they shouldn’t supplant public examination and discussion of how the candidates will differ in their governing approach, especially not when one candidate has said he would like to be a dictator (just for a day) and muses often about weaponizing the federal government to advance his vision.
Yet they do have some utility in showing us the candidates in contrast with one another and under pressure, forced to defend and explain their positions.
Trump risks having Harris — already a significantly more popular politician than he is — demand to know why he has taken a victory lap on the overruling of Roe v. Wade, when she presses him on his refusal to accept his 2020 loss and his efforts to overturn the results and as she goads him into lashing out. What the Trump team is trying to spin as pride is really just fear.
Of course, if Trump doesn’t turn up, he’ll just be all but confirming that he can’t take the heat. He should at least have the decency to turn up for the commitment that he made. Biden showed up to a fateful debate and so should Trump…CONTINUE READING>>
