The Other McCain

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Donald Trump Had an Agreement to Debate Joe Biden, Not to Debate ‘Whoever Democrats Pick to Replace Joe Biden’

Posted on | August 4, 2024 | Comments Off on Donald Trump Had an Agreement to Debate Joe Biden, Not to Debate ‘Whoever Democrats Pick to Replace Joe Biden’

Hey, remember when it was a “right-wing conspiracy theory” if you thought Democrats were going to pull a Torricelli-Lautenberg switch and run some other presidential candidate instead of Joe Biden?

Republicans float a quiet conspiracy theory
that Biden won’t be on the ballot
— NBC News, Oct. 26, 2023

Get Used to It: Biden Isn’t Going Anywhere
— Politico, Feb. 13, 2024

It’s time to end the conspiracy theories
about Biden being replaced as a candidate
— Washington Examiner, May 16, 2024

It’s important not to forget this recent history, which is being memory-holed by the same media voices who told you that you were crazy for thinking Democrats would do what, in fact, they have now done.

And why did Democrats dump Biden? Because the befuddled incumbent got his ass kicked in an early debate that Team Biden demanded. Remember that ridiculous “make my day” video from Joe?

So what happened? Many people were surprised when Trump immediately accepted the debates (first on CNN, then on ABC) with rules dictated by Team Biden. Lots of us right-wingers thought this was a bad idea. CNN was blatantly in the tank for Biden, but Trump didn’t seem to care. With the benefit of hindsight, we now see that Trump was smarter than all of us — he knew Biden couldn’t handle a debate, no matter how in-the-tank the moderators might be. (To be more anti-Trump than Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, you’d have to be Thomas Crooks).

Biden’s cognitively impaired performance in the June 27 debate proved to be a fatal wound to his reelection campaign, and Joe announced he was quitting 24 days later, designating Kamala Harris as his chosen replacement. This was ratified by a “virtual roll call” of DNC delegates — because thus does Our Democracy™ proceed — and Team Biden was thereby magically transformed into Team Harris. Despite the utterly unprecedented nature of this process, Team Harris seemed to assume that Trump was obligated to debate Harris under the same agreement he’d made when Biden was the candidate. Why? How is it that Democrats think they can pull such shenanigans and never experience any negative consequences as a result? Now Trump is playing hardball.

Trump offers to debate Sept. 4 on Fox in front of a live audience in Pennsylvania, and Team Harris perversely claims Trump is breaching his prior agreement with ABC when, in fact, it is Democrats who have rendered that agreement void by switching candidates.

And you know something? Harris needs the debate more than Trump does. He is a known commodity, with a solid grassroots base, so why should he do her any favors? It was one thing, when Biden was an incumbent seeking reelection, and Trump needed to counter the weight of the “bully pulpit.” But Kamala Harris? What has she got?

Recall that Trump did not deign to debate the Republican rivals who challenged him for the nomination. He let them debate amongst themselves, then beat them all in the primaries, without much effort. It may seem crazy to think that Trump has made a similar calculation about Harris, but his previous hunch proved accurate, didn’t it?

So, Trump decides that having no debate at all would be better than debating on ABC, and makes a take-it-or-leave-it offer for the Fox debate. And what if Team Harris says “no”? Fine with me, says Trump, and then turns all her complaints into an opportunity to talk about the shenanigans by which Democrats switched candidates.

“It’s a bold strategy, Cotton. Let’s see if it pays off.”



 

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Category: Debates, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris

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