Man, that didn’t take long. Not even one business day, if you can believe that. In the morning Donald Trump accepted Joe Biden’s “make my day” invitation to debate and did his usual macho tirade on Truth Social, any time, any place. His manner was immediately compared to WWE and so those images began flooding social media. That was this morning. Later on in the afternoon the walk back started, And the conspiracy theory. And commentary that was a cross between the two.

This next one is classic. It takes the Pot Calling Kettle award and then some.

The story is moving faster than a hummingbird’s wings.

Trump’s campaign had announced that it had accepted an invitation from CNN to debate Biden on June 27—as well as a second invite for a debate moderated by ABC on September 10. Biden, who had previously accepted an invitation from CNN, also agreed to take part in ABC News’s debate as well. But Trump’s post seems to indicate that the former president is trying to alter the agreement on his own. Biden’s campaign accused him of “playing games.”

“Donald Trump has a long history of playing games with debates: complaining about the rules, breaking those rules, pulling out at the last minute, or not showing up at all—which he’s done repeatedly in all three cycles he’s run for president,” said Biden’s reelection campaign chair, Jen O’Malley Dillon, in a statement.

“President Biden made his terms clear for two one-on-one debates, and Donald Trump accepted those terms. No more games. No more chaos, no more debate about debates. We’ll see Donald Trump on June 27th in Atlanta—if he shows up,” Dillion added.

Is Trump trying to make excuses and eventually weasel out of debates? He already skipped debates during the Republican presidential primaries, but those were to his political advantage as he never trailed any of his GOP opponents in the polls. In this case, chickening out would probably look very bad. It should be easy to debate an opponent you’ve dubbed “Sleepy Joe.” Of course, Trump has little room to talk, now that he’s been caught snoozing multiple times during his hush-money trial.

And of course the big question is *why* did Joe Biden decide to do this. There are a number of theories. One is that he’s afraid of what the polls are telling him. I don’t know if that’s true. The polls are screwy and the polls have been screwy for some time. 2016 polls were nuts, as were 2020 and 2022. So I don’t see that situation changing.

I think a lot of what is going on with polling these days is that people are frustrated that our politics is in the mess it’s in with Trump. That’s one factor. Biden is excoriated routinely by right-wing media. That’s another factor. But on the other hand, Biden’s successes cannot be totally ignored. And the economy is fine. The S&P 500 broke a record Wednesday morning. This is not the kind of an incident that galvanizes a sitting president into hitting the panic button. So reserve judgement on any commentary that says Biden is reacting to polls, where Trump is leading.

I think timing is a key consideration here. We are mid-May. Trump’s criminal trial should conclude in two to four weeks — and then the debate is set for June 27. That’s my theory, that Biden wants to capitalize on the momentum that the trial is producing. I think that’s sound reasoning on his part.

And Trump world is now on the defense, so clearly the Biden-Harris Team hit on something. Team Trump should be worried. If Trump comes to the debate a convicted criminal, that will be explosive. If he comes to the debate with a hung jury, that will still provide plenty of ammunition to Biden-Harris. If he comes acquitted, that’s the least favorable outcome, obviously, but nobody is predicting that right now, so let’s leave making a conclusion about that scenario for the future.

Good news about the Trump jury and why acquittal doesn’t look likely: Norm Eisen was in court yesterday and said that the jury was smiling and nodding in agreement with Michael Cohen. That is a very good sign. That could have pushed Joe Biden’s hand as well.

Timing is key. If Trump loses his criminal trial, his first criminal trial I should say, then that loss and the Biden debate will make an incredible one-two punch. Plus, the Supreme Court will be hearing the immunity issue soon. That may also provide terrific fodder for a debate, depending on how it goes.

We’re dealing with many variables here but a few things are certain: Joe Biden is a terrific debater. Donald Trump sucks at debating. That won’t change. The rest of the issues are in flux right now and the chips will fall where they may, but that key issue is set in stone. And Trump world knows it and after a few moments of false bravado they started to freak.

So will Trump back down? No. He can’t afford to lose face. But the conspiracy theories will hatch overnight and be sprouting wings by morning. On that you may depend.

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1 COMMENT

  2. Of course it’s rigged – they wouldn’t let Don John pick the venue, the moderators and the topics.

    Definitely unfair to the orange squash and they won’t even let him send tweets during it

    11
    1

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