Trump says he'll skip an ABC debate with Harris in September and wants them to face off on Fox News
Donald Trump says he's pulling out of a scheduled September debate with Vice President Kamala Harris on ABC and wants them to face off on Fox News.
Not that this even needs to be said, but we all know why this is.
Trump needs his safe space. Trum needs Fox News moderators to throw him softball questions while trying to hang Gotcha questions around Harris' neck. He needs the moderators to let him speak uninterrupted while cutting off Harris. He needs an audience full of cult members to tell him how great he is and how clever he is every time he speaks, acting like his own personal laugh track.
If he doesn't get that reaction, he falls apart. He literally does not know what to do if there's nobody there telling him how great he is. So he does what he always does when he's not getting the reaction he wants. He doubles down on the hate. Repeatedly if necessary. And once he finds what works, he exploits it to ridiculous degrees. The problem is that doubling down on nothing still gets you nothing. So all Trump has is trying to double down again and again, wondering why he perpetually gets nothing. The NABJ interview is a shining example of this.
If he doesn't have FOX news viewers cheering him on, if he doesn't have the entire channel carefully editing what he says, if he's asked anything other than pre-selected softball questions, then even he knows all he's got left is having to stand on his word and defend his past actions, and even Trump knows there's no chance in hell that'll happen. It's why he routinely disavows any references to his own former statements, even when he's shown the footage of him saying it.
Trump knows he cannot win a legitimate debate. He can't even win a debate with his thumb on the scale. He has to have his entire fat orange ass sitting on it eating a hamberder and drinking a cofeve to even have a chance. Why else do you think he wants it on his home turf, with his moderators, in front of his audience, on what is essentially his network? Because he knows that he has to have his fat orange ass on the scale, knows even that is probably not going to be enough, so he's basically shouting to his base "All aboard!!" in hopes they'll join him.
I almost wish Biden had held off stepping down until the start of the debate, it would be luscious to watch him fall apart over that, live on TV.
To take this further, imagine Harris walking out, tag teaming Joe to take his place, and then watching a wet stain dribble down the slacks of Mr. "I've known about the VP for years but I still purposely mispronounce her first name as if my own name was duhNALD Troomp." Tantruming cowards gonna cowardly tantrum.
“Felon Republican nominee refused any debate not held on one very specific network, known to fund republicans”
hmmmmmm
"Weird, old Republican requires safe space for presidential debate"
on one very specific entertainment network
Ftfy
"Any time, anywhere", except it has to be over there and at that particular time.
And if she says no to his particular conditions, he'll try and use it to claim she's the coward. Which is the whole point of this, he doesn't want to debate anywhere, so he's hoping she says no.
Similar to a lawyer telling a client to just repeat, “no comment,” the Harris team just needs to keep saying “He agreed to this debate and Kamala will be there. The Fox debate was only brought up after he reneged on his previous commitment. We will not be at Fox as it was never in the schedule. We can discuss a Fox entertainment debate after this previously scheduled debate takes place. Next question.”
Say nothing else and just repeat that ad nauseam.
Harris is going to eat him alive no matter the venue.
I think she is 1000x more intelligent and eloquent than he is, but a Fox News debate would be a massacre because she would be debating the entire channel, not Trump. They wouldn’t let it be a discussion. There are so many rhetorical cheats, fallacies, and subterfuges they could use and I guarantee you they would war game the show so hard there’s no chance she’d be able to say anything coherent without the moderator basically shouting her down or cutting her mic.
It would be like challenging Wayne Gretzky to a hockey match but when he arrives, the “hockey” match is actually a garbage eating contest and his opponent is a goat.
I'm on the fence on this. I hate Fox news, but Harris seems to me to be able to think quick on her feet, and can make her arguments succinctly so that even if Trump rambles on, and the Fox team cuts her mic, unless they just shut her mic off from beginning to end (which wouldn't look good, even for them), she'd still make Trump look like the fool.
That said, I can't think of a single person who wouldn't be feeling the immense pressure in that situation, and it'd be very easy to lose your cool with that much shit piled against you. So I doubt she'll take the bait and Trump will play it off as her being cowardly, but it's a nothing burger, he's just trying to distract from the fact they've got no game plan.
The Trump team is reeling on the back foot right now and are still looking for their footing. They're about to find it, but that doesn't mean they'll be able to recoup from this. They really had no recourse for going up against anyone except Biden, which just goes to show how little foresight and how much arrogance their political strategists had.
I've got my criticisms of Harris, but she is a far better pick than Biden was, and I say if you smell blood in the water, that's when you fucking go in for the kill. And in this case, since it's Trump, I'd say it's fine to kick the man while he's down. He lost all right to civility after pulling that shit on January 6th.
Would be hilarious to get a Dem in who knows ASL and just keeps going after their mic is cut off. 🤣
She's going to approach it like a trial before a jury (and it really kinda is), hammer home the fact that he is a douche, and cause him to incriminate himself.
She's gonna need some salsa or something.
ABC should give her the hour!
I've heard that's the plan. They're dedicating an hour to the presidential candidates. If only one shows up then that candidate gets the whole hour
You have to do the one you already agreed to first, old man.
She should not take this bait. Giving Trump the incredibly biased home field advantage this would lead to is not going to be worth it. Pro Trump crowd plus biased moderators will make her look terrible, no matter how good a debater she is. I'm not even sure the ABC moderators will be good enough, but they'll be a long shot better than Fox and he already agreed to it. Hold him to it.
She should take the bait.
Go on Fox, every question, either hit back at trump's felonies and that case (he is under a gag order that he absolutely will violate), or she should target Trump's involvement in calling the 2020 election rigged. Fox is under an settlement agreement from Dominion not to slander the company, or promote guests that slander the company, without pushing back. She could kill 2 birds with one stone here.
"Snowflake demands safe space for interview for biggest job in the country"
I thought president was about to become a black job.
Fox News = Trump’s special blankie.
I don’t care whether she debates Trump or not. I just don’t want to see her give in to him.
Fox should be stripped of the trademark "News" and should be forced to be called Fox Entertainment. It wouldn't change anything but I'd feel better
🐔 🐔 🐔 🐔
She should agree and then ignore every question just to attack the network and their relationship with Trump.
Just read transcripts from depositions where they call Fox entertainment and their viewers idiots.
Read their stolen election collusion discovery and who was part of the Jan 6th insurrection.
Read that "perfect phonecall" over and over and over and ask what Trump meant by "finding" those extra votes
Edit: Whoopsie-doodle, I forgot my "/s"
No. They want attention. Don't reward them with content.
Whoops, forgot my /s
It would be one of those "you love to see it" moments until the crowd starts cheering for Jan 6th.
The second she steps outside of rules that they'll only apply to her she'll be muted and you know it.
His word is his bond.
I guess it was a junk bond.
24 hour marathon call-in debate on cspan, let's go
“Longtime caller, first-time listener”
Well she can add 'coward' to 'felon', then.
Her campaign already swatted them down perfectly.
whatever you need to feel safe, removed boy
He prefers bunker boy.