“Donald Trump announced that he intends to attend the debate regardless of the poll numbers!”
The headline could easily have stemmed from a joyously (and foolishly) optimistic news release from preordained 2024 Republican presidential candidate loser Nikki Haley’s campaign hierarchy, but there’s no way in heck that the all-but anointed Donald Trump would be dumb enough, at this stage, to legitimize the former Trump U.N. ambassador and South Carolina governor’s effort to win the party nomination by additional exposure and stature gained – and through humoring the establishment’s favorite with an equal-ground hashing over of the issues.
No, Trump was referencing the potential upcoming candidate forums between the two all-but certain nominees of their respective parties – Trump for the Republicans and senile president Joe Biden for the increasingly worried and anxious Democrats. Despite the fact that both men are virtual locks to comprise a rematch of the 2020 contest, there’ve been rumors that neither of them, based on recent experience, would be willing to chance a highly risky face-to-face with the other candidate.
The motivations for potentially skipping such a confrontation are understandable for both sides. Trump, as has been his practice since the beginning of the 2024 Republican primary race, deemed it inappropriate for a clear frontrunner to possibly open the door to a “bump” from his far-behind intra-party rivals. So, Trump has stayed away from the “official” party events co-sponsored by the Republican National Committee, holding counter-rallies and forums instead, which, predictably, ended up with much larger TV audiences than the stages full of also-rans.
Similarly, but not quite the same, senile Joe Biden decreed that he wouldn’t be showing up to any Democrat primary debates this cycle because he is already president and didn’t acknowledge any legitimate challengers to his party position. As everyone knows, legacy Democrat Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. launched a primary challenge to Biden last year, but subsequently withdrew due to the party establishment’s completely edging him out. And there were no debates scheduled.
Kennedy then shunned his father’s and uncles’ party and tore into an independent bid… which doesn’t seem to be going anywhere either.
But Trump giving the go-ahead to attend a one-on-one with Biden months ahead of time is a big deal. In an article titled “Trump Says He Is Obligated to Debate Biden Ahead of Election, Regardless of Polls”, Katabella Roberts reported at The Epoch Times last week:
“Former President Trump is willing to have as many debates as necessary with President Joe Biden ahead of the 2024 presidential election, citing his ‘obligation’ to attend general election debates.
“President Trump—who has so far declined to participate in any Republican primary debates—made the comments during a Fox News town hall held in Greenville, South Carolina [last week]. ‘I’ll do it right now on your show. I’ll challenge him right now,’ President Trump said when questioned by host Laura Ingraham if he would challenge President Biden to a debate as the two move closer to a rematch in the 2024 presidential election.
“’I think you have an obligation in this case, you really have an obligation to debate, ‘President Trump continued. ‘When you have the final Republican, the final Democrat, you have the two people, you have to debate regardless of polls.’”
Yes, there certainly would be an obligation to compete regardless of the polls. The past two presidential campaign cycles, when Trump trailed both of his Democrat opponents, it was very clearly to Trump’s advantage to debate them. This year, when the polls are even or show him slightly in front, there’s just as much incentive for the 45th president to set large distinctions between himself and the old broken-down moron incumbent president.
If for nothing else, Trump can demonstrate how “with it” he is in comparison to Biden, though it should be pointed out that Biden has exceeded pre-event expectations of his debate “performance” practically every time he’s done one, with the exception of Democrat primary events. Whatever the Democrat powers-that-be did to “juice” the lying idiot up for a couple hours in 2012 and 2020, it worked.
It’s not that Biden was lucid and prepared and knowledgeable in his two 2020 debates (the third, as you recall, was cancelled due to Trump contracting COVID and the Republican would not consent to having the program held “virtually”, so there ended up being only two 2020 face-to-face forums). On the contrary, Biden looked like a man who’d been tucked away in his basement hiding from the public for months on end – or speaking to lightly attended “rallies” of people sitting in their cars, honking their horns for applause.
In addition, senile Joe was certainly aided in looking “presidential” in the first debate (at the end of September, 2020) by extremely biased and unfair “moderator” Chris Wallace of Fox News, as well as Trump’s impatience and generally bad decorum for a president of the United States. Trump needed only to show up, present his case and let the corrupted career politician Democrat-in-a-safe-blue state hamstring himself. But that’s not what happened.
Many, including myself, speculated that Trump blew his best chance at reelection that night by not merely allowing the voters to decide which man had a better record and vision for the country. Instead, Trump constantly interrupted, complained, griped and appeared impatient and petulant. Did he win on the merits? Probably. But with the populace already subdued due to the COVID farce, they were looking for a leader – and a way out of the mess, not a politician who seemed driven to settle scores.
Trump performed much better in the second debate, but by then, with the early/mail-in voting already well on its way to deciding the outcome, was it too late?
This year, there’s been speculation that it would be Biden who bowed out of the debates before they’d even been placed on the calendar. (Note: Roberts reported: Three presidential debates have been scheduled for the 2024 cycle in Texas, Virginia, and Utah, with the first one scheduled for September). The first is typically a standard two-candidate event with a moderator posing the questions to the candidates stationed behind lecterns, the second a “town hall style” forum where queries come directly from the audience with a “moderator” steering the discussion (remember Candy Crowley in 2012?) and the third being similar in format and style to the first.
In today’s ultra-divided political situation, these highly anticipated made-for-TV matchups could be very consequential in determining who will be the next president. Whereas party primary programs rarely alter the balance in any noticeable way, general election debates have the power to change the dynamic considerably.
In 2016, when both candidates were seen as possessing major baggage, Trump presented a hopeful, optimistic agenda which differed markedly from Crooked Hillary Clinton’s “With Her!” identity politics more-of-the-same ideas. Clinton couldn’t articulate how her administration would differ from Barack Obama’s, and the nation had had quite enough of him by then.
In essence, it’s a positive that Trump would commit to taking part in the debates well in advance of the actual general election campaign starting. It removes any possible ambiguity from Trump’s position on the primary debates and places the onus on Biden to agree to participate himself – or reinforce the already ingrained impression that his handlers are keeping him sequestered from the public due to his penchant for harming himself… politically.
Biden has done relatively few press events (compared with his predecessors), and lately, the old goat has become quite prickly whenever a journalist asks him a question that lies outside his standard boilerplate comfort zone. Senile Joe’s disastrous impromptu press encounter after the release of the Special Counsel’s report a couple weeks ago reinforced the widely accepted view that Biden wasn’t up to the job any longer.
In Roberts’ report, Trump mentioned that Biden has been slipping for the past 25 years. “He has declined and there is no question about it. But he was always sort of semi-declined if you go back 25 years,” President Trump said. “If you look at me, I feel and, I really mean this ... if I felt diminished, declined in any way, I think I would know it. I think I would say ‘I’m not running.’ Someone should talk to him. If he runs, he runs.”
There are probably a lot of people talking to Joe Biden these days, the mystery is one, is he listening and two, does he understand what they’re saying? Senile Joe has made a political career out of substituting anger and vehemence for knowledge and confidence. Establishment Democrats are still of the opinion that he’s the only one who could beat Trump.
If Biden were to be “replaced” or to bow out due to age and/or health reasons, the Democrats’ most ready replacement is vice president cackling Kamala Harris, and what Republican presidential candidate – Trump or otherwise – wouldn’t relish an opportunity for the affirmative action next-in-line to make a donkey out of herself in front of the whole world?
With current polls suggesting that Trump’s lead will either endure as is – or get larger – it would be nearly impossible for Biden to outright decline to take part in the 2024 presidential debates. The negative news buzz alone would probably be enough to keep senile Joe down at least through election day.
Biden’s approval ratings will need all the help they can get, and the best and most surefire way for him to try and regain some standing would be to appear in a debate with Trump, seem strong and capable – and to hope Trump reinforces the personality attributes that fan his own popularity conundrum. Trump can simply be himself – he’s got the agenda, the accomplishments and the confidence to do well.
The latter half of 2024 will be fascinating to watch.
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