Donald Trump has a conundrum. Despite some hemming and hawing, he made the right call in debating President Joe Biden and won the battle of “who looks oldest.” He certainly can’t reprise that against Vice President Kamala Harris at the ABC News debate on Sept. 10. And the optics of “prosecutor vs. felon” are brutal for Trump. Unlike Biden, Harris won’t bizarrely let that go.
Trump also doesn’t want to talk about abortion, which Harris will hit hard. He will surely rail against immigration, but Harris will just as surely point out that it was he himself who sabotaged the bipartisan border deal—legislation that she has promised to sign as president.
So what to do? His answer is to flirt with pulling out of the debate.
In a post on his Truth Social site, Trump wrote:
I watched ABC FAKE NEWS this morning, both lightweight reporter Jonathan Carl’s(K?) ridiculous and biased interview of Tom Cotton (who was fantastic!), and their so-called Panel of Trump Haters, and I ask, why would I do the Debate against Kamala Harris on that network? Will panelist Donna Brazil give the questions to the Marxist Candidate like she did for Crooked Hillary Clinton? Will Kamala’s best friend, who heads up ABC, do likewise. Where is Liddle’ George Slopadopolus hanging out now? Will he be involved. They’ve got a lot of questions to answer!!! Why did Harris turn down Fox, NBC, CBS, and even CNN? Stay tuned!!!
And now, Monday morning, Politico reports that Trump and Harris are at an impasse over a debate rule. Trump’s team wants to keep the rule of muting microphones outside of a candidate’s allotted speaking time (i.e., as it was in the June 27 debate against President Joe Biden), while Harris’ team wants the mics hot the whole time, believing that Trump’s greatest foe is his own mouth.
“We have told ABC and other networks seeking to host a possible October debate that we believe both candidates’ mics should be live throughout the full broadcast,” a Harris campaign adviser told Politico. “Our understanding is that Trump’s handlers prefer the muted microphone because they don’t think their candidate can act presidential for 90 minutes on his own. We suspect Trump’s team has not even told their boss about this dispute because it would be too embarrassing to admit they don’t think he can handle himself against Vice President Harris without the benefit of a mute button.”
The impasse could be what Trump uses to get out of the debate.
What do you all think, will he actually debate Harris? Vote below.
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