Is Trump running scared these days? You bet he is. I watched his press conference right up to when MSNBC cut away after almost an hour of lies. To start fact checking Trump I might add. One bit of sort of news was Trump pushing a whole set of debates. He tried to bail on the one set for Sept. 10 on ABC. Instead he had announced he would debate Harris on Fox on Sept. 4. Harris said nope, stick to the deal you made. When it became clear that a) If he didn’t show up on the 10th ABC would give Harris the whole hour to herself, and b) public sentiment seemed to be he was ‘Chicken Trump’ for not sticking to the original debate deal he had a problem. Harris wasn’t taking a hit for rebuffing his Fox Debate proposal. So now he’s decided he’s the “Master-bater”, oops, I mean “Master Debater after all and wants three debates. BUT, still starting with Fox. I say the whole thing is a Con because if Fox goes first that will be the ONLY debate.
You can read the about the whole Trump, “Trumpy” proposal here in this article by USA Today. It contains the details, or at least the details of the outlines of the whole thing. However there’s only one detail that matters. Trump’s insistence that the debate on Fox goes first. With their hosts and with them getting to screen the crowd. Even with a frothing at the mouth crowd shouting every time Harris tries to speak and the trio of hosts from Fox’s prime-time ‘Three Hour White Power Hour’ (Waters, Hannity and Ingraham) making up lies claiming to “fact check” Harris she’d do better than expected. And the KKKangeroo KKKourt image of Trump and Fox will horrify non-MAGA viewers.
However, it all comes down to Trump getting a debate in that’s arranged on the most favorable terms he can imagine for himself. In his mind, even if Harris gets in a dig or two he can brush it off post debate with the usual lies. He’ll crow about having ‘demolished her’ and “did you hear the crowd?’ and extrapolate that to the entire country. Hell the entire world. He’ll give us the “people” say everyone poured out of their homes talking about how great he was and how much Harris sucked. MAGA will eat that up with a spoon and the RWNJ media, including Twitter/X and even to a degree FaceBook/Meta will help Trump sell that lie.
Then he’ll invent one excuse after another NOT to have any more debates!
That’s what Trump’s trying to do. It’s that simple. It should be obvious to everyone what Trump’s up to. Not that Kamala Harris wants or needs my advice but if I had the chance I’d tell her agree to a debate on Fox. But make it the MIDDLE debate. After kicking his ass in the first one on ABC walk into the Fox lion’s den and get clawed up some. But both during and afterwards remind Trump what happened on actual neutral ground, and flat-out call him a chicken if he won’t show up for the third and final debate. Be blunt with his fat orange ass, right to his face. And every day afterwards. Hell, hire someone to wear a chicken costume but wearing a Trump mask and a wig with Trump’s hairdo to make clucking and squawking sounds whenever the subject of debates comes up. You don’t think journalists will turn the camera that way for a few seconds? Especially if the ‘Chicken Trump’ wearing a sign saying I’m afraid to debate again? Or something that’s a better taunt?
Again, Trump’s proposal is nothing but a con. And again, Harris can prove it by countering and agreeing to a Fox debate but only as the second out of three.
I don’t think Harris should debate Trump at all. Trump doesn’t debate, he doesn’t know how, he doesn’t actually know anything or care about anything except “winning” by wreaking destruction and chaos. He is incapable of rational discourse on real issues of importance to the American people. Instead he bullies, insults, and lies. The media sets him not even a low bar, I would say they set him no bar at all. But for Harris they would set one impossibly high. He has nothing to lose, nobody expects anything else from him; she has a lot to lose. We all know what he will do — set new lows in public discourse, advancing his never-ending quest to destroy the mind and morals of a good chunk of the American public. We all know this, and nobody but his cult really wants to see it. What people like us want to see is Trump getting trounced. But I don’t know that the best criminal prosecutor in the world could really do that. Maybe a savage and savvy political communicator like Wilson, or a very talented improv comic who could mock Trump, for example by imitating him, could do it. But that wouldn’t be a debate, it would be something like a verbal version of a WWF match, except as we all know WWF fights are mostly kayfabe, prearranged between the opponents. A TRump “debate” would be more like a Roman circus.
VP Harris has the courage to get up there with Trump, but I doubt it would do her or us or anybody else much good. What would do a lot more good would be for her to meet Trump’s challenge by explaining to the American people why “debating” Trump does not serve the purposes that debates are supposed to serve, She could could do this by riffing on a theme attributed to George Bernard Shaw:“Never wrestle with a pig — you’ll both get dirty and the pig loves it.”
By “Wilson” I meant Rick Wilson of the Lincoln Project.
When I heard him say 3 debates, I thought that I’ll believe it when I see it. I think you’re exactly right and I would love for her to respond just as you outlined. I’m sure she’s smart enough to outwit him.
Reminds of an old joke my father used to tell. (Some readers here, of a certain age at least, may get this play on words.) Q.”Who was that lady I saw you out with last night?” — A. “I didn’t outwit her, she outwitted me.”
Anyway, of course Kamala is way smart enough to outwit Trump — if it were a question of wit. Unfortunately, wit, a debate with Trump is not a battle of wits; it’s not even a debate. You ave to have two contenders playing by the same rules. As far as Trump is concerned, it’s just a shit-slinging match.
Further to my comment above, I found an excellent answer by Rendon Greeff to the question, “How can someone effectively debate with a person who lacks integrity and is not interested in discussing facts or truth?” :
“You don’t. You don’t have to win everyone to your way of thinking.
“A good debate can be mutually supportive, where both sides learn something.
“You don’t have to enter into a bad debate. It’s a choice.
“If you leave a bad debate, you may risk looking like you don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s a huge ego boost to the opponent, whose convictions are further reinforced.
“But the egg is on his face. You left because he is not worthy opponent.
“A good boxer picks worthy opponents. So should a good debater.”
https://www.quora.com/How-can-someone-effectively-debate-with-a-person-who-lacks-integrity-and-is-not-interested-in-discussing-facts-or-truth
She really doesn’t need to debate trump. The only reason to debate him is to honor the agreement that was struck by President Biden. Just stick to the original commitment and if he doesn’t show, all the better.