Former President Joe Biden decided that he was going to call all the shots in arranging debates with his presumptive GOP presidential challenger, Donald Trump.
He picked the dates. The networks. The format. The location. And he put them out there in a video that was a double-dog-dare to the Trump campaign to take it or leave it.
Trump took it. We know how that worked out:
@TrumpWarRoom made a montage of Biden’s aphasia during the debate pic.twitter.com/NZJfOC0rR8
— The Healthcare Channel (@THEHCC) June 29, 2024
OK. So that was so bad that Joe Biden’s campaign literally unraveled in less than a month after the debate and now Vice President Kamala Harris is his likely heir apparent as 2024 presidential nominee. They’re still on for that same format, right?
No. And why should they be?
In a statement released on Thursday that immediately had left-bubble social media hopping mad, Trump’s campaign said he wasn’t going to commit to a second debate with Harris under the current rules, considering she isn’t even the nominee yet.
“Given the continued political chaos surrounding Crooked Joe Biden and the Democrat Party, general election debate details cannot be finalized until Democrats formally decide on a nominee,” Trump said in the statement.
Should Trump debate Harris?
“There is a strong sense by many in the Democrat Party — namely Barack Hussein Obama — that Kamala Harris is a Marxist fraud who cannot beat president Trump, and they are still holding out for someone ‘better,’” the statement continued.
Obama is one of the biggest Democrat names who held off on openly endorsing Harris as Biden’s replacement through Thursday, and reports surfaced earlier in the week he didn’t think Harris could beat Trump and that Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly was his preference.
(Harris’ campaign account would later post a phone call with the Obamas in which both Barack and Michelle offered their endorsements early Friday morning, well after the Trump campaign’s statement.)
“Therefore, it would be inappropriate to schedule things with Harris because Democrats very well could still change their minds,” the statement concluded.
— Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TeamTrump) July 26, 2024
If you’re familiar with every pathetic leftist attention-trawler on social media, they all seemed to crawl out in unison from under their collective rocks — everyone from Ron Filipkowski to @JoJoFromJerz — saying that Trump was afraid of Harris or appearing too frail.
Let’s face it, Trump backed out of this debate because he is afraid of a powerful, intelligent woman of color humiliating him in front of the whole world and laughing in his face while doing so.
That’s why he won’t debate.
Forget the BS.
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) July 26, 2024
If he’s unable to even debate, I really think it’s time for Donald Trump to step aside.
For the good of the country.
— Jo (@JoJoFromJerz) July 26, 2024
BREAKING: Donald Trump officially says he is BACKING OUT of the presidential debates for now.
A weakened Trump appears to be terrified of Kamala Harris.
— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) July 26, 2024
Yeah, because I’m sure Team Trump is really courting the people that believe @JoJoFromJerz represents moderation and sanity in politics. (Or anything.)
There are two reasons why this decision on the Trump campaign’s part is perfectly reasonable: the stated one and the unstated one.
The stated one is perfectly valid. Sure, the planning for the shotgun wedding between Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party suzerains seems to have gone more smoothly than as planned — but, as with all shotgun weddings, let’s see them get to the altar before giving them a gift.
The fact that Barack Obama — who is still the last Democrat to serve two terms in the White House — hasn’t given an enthusiastic endorsement of the last-minute swap speaks volumes. There are also left-leaning moderates in Congress, including independent Sen. Joe Manchin and Democratic Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, who’s co-chair of the Democrat centrist-leaning Blue Dog Coalition, who have outright refused to endorse her.
Logically, however, there might not be time vet another candidate not named Harris, considering the convention opens in a few short weeks. Therefore, there remains the unstated reason why this is perfectly reasonable: Why would anyone be so stupid as to assume the rules for the debates that were dictated by the guy who’s getting swapped out because he performed so poorly in the one debate that took place would still apply?
Trump took a gamble on the debate format put forth by Joe Biden. Biden literally chose everything, even down to the lack of audience and the slanted moderators. It paid off wildly for Trump — so wildly that he’s now facing Kamala Harris, a woman whose lack of likability was one of the Trump campaign’s best arguments before Uncle Joe’s rocky debate ride derailed his 2024 chances.
At this point, even without the shotgun wedding consummated, Harris is in her honeymoon stage with the Very Online liberal contingent. Even then, polling data still show that whatever bump she’s received from the relief caused by Biden’s ouster likely isn’t enough to get her over the top were the election held today. The honeymoon stage doesn’t last long.
It only gets tougher from here, as well, especially since Harris hasn’t even begun to face questions about what she knew about Biden’s cognitive decline and when she knew it.
Some Democrats, mind you, never even wanted a presidential debate with Trump in the first place. Now they want it to take place under exactly the same rules the guy who isn’t even around to have the debate any more proposed — and if not, he’s a fraidy cat who should be off the ballot.
No: He’s simply a man playing by the same rules they do, if not perhaps even fairer. If the left is furious about it, perhaps golf is more their speed, not politics. I know an old guy who’ll be leaving his current job in January, if not sooner, that’s probably looking for a partner.
