In typical Trump fashion, he is apparently trying to control and change the narrative surrounding a debate with presidential nominee, Harris. Biden and Trump had previously agreed to a debate scheduled for September 10, 2024, hosted by ABC. As soon as Harris took over after Biden stepped down, she immediately agreed to the same debate that Trump had previously agreed to.
Of course, Trump being Trump, he started immediately waffling and said the agreement had only pertained to Biden and that he hadn’t committed to debate Harris under the same terms and at the same time. Now, Trump is trying to change the game to be much more favorable to himself. He has said that he has agreed to debate Harris on September 4th, but this time hosted by Fox News and in front of a large crowd.
Trump and his team are trying to set the stage so that if Harris does not agree to his terms, she will be labelled ‘afraid’ to debate Trump. This is so typical of Trump. I sincerely hope Harris does not fall for this trap. Fox News hosting a debate for Trump would be no different than having it in the dining room at Mar A Lago in front of a crowd stacked with Trump diehards.
I have no doubt that whatever venue is used for a debate, Harris will be more than capable of holding her own. The problem is that if Harris agrees to Trump’s terms for this debate, it will, in mind opinion, give Trump a small victory that is not warranted. I am sure after spending twenty years prosecuting bad guys of all types, Harris is very aware of this game, and I hope she chooses not to play.
It has been reported that the recent train wreck of an interview that Trump had with the Association of Black Journalists got started late because he refused to agree to real time fact checking! There were some initial technical issues but apparently those were resolved quickly. The remainder of the delay was simply because Trump did not want to get fact checked in real time. He finally walked on stage after the hosts said they would go on the air and tell people that he refused to the interview because of the real time fact checking. It’s a given there will be no real time fact-checking taking place during a debate hosted by Fox News.
It will be very interesting to see how this debate issue plays out. I hope Harris does not play Trump’s game. However, if she agrees to walk into the lion’s den of Fox News to debate Trump, it could well be a show for the ages. Frankly, I think that Trump is underestimating Harris’ ability to go toe to toe with him.
In one way, it seems like a somewhat foolish gamble for Trump. If he were to debate Harris on Sept. 10th in a venue hosted by ABC and performed poorly, he could blame a ‘very biased’ ABC, ‘unfair’ moderators or any one of a number of things. If he performs poorly before a Fox News audience and moderators, who is he going to have to blame? He will certainly blame Fox News, the moderators, sunspots or whatever but if you can’t perform well on your home field, it’s going to look even worse than losing an ‘away game.’
Wherever and whenever a debate takes place, it will be interesting to see how long Trump can keep his cool when he is being called out by a small, woman of color, which is kind of like Trump’s Kryptonite!!. I suspect at some point Trump will start to melt down like Three Mile Island. That could be fun to watch.
