Donald Trump doubles down on plans to dodge next presidential debate

MicroWave@lemmy.world to politics @lemmy.world – 545 points – Donald Trump Doubles Down On Plans To Dodge Next Presidential Debate
huffpost.com

The former president took a shot at ABC News, which is set to host the debate in September.

Former President Donald Trump continued his attacks against ABC News on Monday as he moved to shift his commitment to the next presidential debate now that Vice President Kamala Harris is the frontrunner to be the Democratic nominee.

Trump began laying the groundwork this weekend to dodge or change the rules of the second debate he’s agreed to, which is set to be held Sept. 10 and broadcast on ABC. The former president has been livid after President Joe Biden ended his bid for reelection on Sunday.

“ABC Fake News is such a joke, among the absolute WORST in the business,” he wrote on Truth Social. “They then tried to make ‘Sleepy’ look like a great President — he was the WORST, and Lyin’ Kamala into a competent person, which she is not.”

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Terrified Trump is scared to face a prosecutor.

Terrified Trump is scared to face another prosecutor.

He has lost to an alarming amount of them already.

Is he getting sentenced any time soon?

Sentencing was supposed to be two weeks ago, but got moved to September while they work out whether the bogus SCOTUS ruling applies to the case.

Is it because he's too old?

Bitch so old he knew Captain Crunch when he was a skipper.

Skipper is an informal term for captain. Perhaps you should’ve said ensign, which is the lowest rank a naval officer can have.

There are also Enlisted to Officer programs. Could have known him back when he was just a little Seaman.

Bitch so old he walked out of a museum and the alarm went off.

It's cause he a bitch and knows he's gonna get fucking served.

She should do the debate anyway. Have an empty podium next to hers.

Maybe put an old hamberder on it.

Channel 4 had ice sculptures standing in for the Conservative and UKIP Brexit Reform parties at a climate debate after both leaders declined an invitation to take part.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50596192

We should just get a giant orange snowflake. Make the color very close to red and the center an elephant. But also unmistakably an orange snowflake.

She should debate the crypt keeper … same thing.

Loved "Tales from the Crypt." Great show. Though I rewatched them recently. Some episodes didn't hold up and some are just really bad. Especially, the last season.

Or a golden calf. Drive hime the whole anti-Christ thing

Lose-lose for him. He ducks it, and it shows the world (again) what a chickenshit he is. He participates, she will kick his ass and he knows it.

The problem is that if he doesn’t show up his base will just say that he’s “rebelling against the liberal media”. Like, would you show up to a Daily Wire debate hosted by Benny S.? That’s what they do here, they tell the base that regular media is evil and then when they run away like cowards it’s seen a strong move. Everyone else already knows that he’s chickenshit so it’s no real loss to run away.

It’s all bullshit but that’s what we’re dealing with here against conservatives. They don’t live in reality and so reality almost can’t hurt them. I’m willing to bet that’s why they only notice stuff that directly affects them; they can’t ignore it when they have to face the music themselves but they can pretend and pretend and pretend when it’s “over there”.

I don't disagree. However, it always comes down to undecided voters. (Which is an uncomfortable truth for multiple reasons.) Anything that makes Trump look bad is potentially helpful with that small but vital percentage.

That's true but we aren't trying to convince his base. We're looking at about 100,000 people spread over a few swing states.

The better aim is to fire up the people who don’t vote and to make sure people have the chance to vote. The left sweeps when people actually go out and vote and that’s why voter restriction is such a core goal of far-right parties.

Debates are great but a big problem for apathetic voters isn’t about who’s better but rather who’s worth standing in line for.

That is absolutely a valid approach. The gold standard is to get both. But convincing the undecideds is the traditional fallback. And why our Overton is screwed up.

Smart move. Can you imagine Trump debating a literal prosecutor? Not just a prosecutor, but a highly successful one who prosecuted for-profit fraudulent colleges like the one he owned? Would be an absolute nightmare for him.

If Kamala isn't competent, as Trump is stating, then it shouldn't be a problem for him.

He was in such a race to debate Biden. Now he's skittering away from Harris like a cockroach in sunlight.

Definitely suggests he's not ready for November.

The prospect of being shown up on such a big stage by a black woman is terrifying to him.

Would have been great to have had Biden bow out at the podium before the debate started and then have wrestling entrance music play as Kamala enters.

A grand entrance and not having attention is what really scares Trump. And fact checking.

Debates should be mandatory for frontrunners, voting should be compulsory

Compulsory voting works best as a deterrent to disenfranchisement. It's not great when it just becomes a rent on people in districts with deplorable voting infrastructure and registration policies.

voting should be compulsory

This may or may not give you the outcome you're looking for. There are absolutely still people out there who don't pay that much attention to politics and having a bunch of people vote for a random name could be disastrous.

Why do Americans always act like other countries don’t exist?

Whenever these kinds of things get brought up Americans act like these are radical new ideas that have never been tried before so obviously we must carefully consider the potential issues in the purely theoretical.

You aren’t that special. Universal health care works. Gun control works. Mandatory voting works. All of these things have been tried in other countries and have been policy for decades or centuries in those countries.

You don’t have to speculate on what might happen based on zero information. You can use the oodles of real world data at your fingertips where these are tried and tested solutions to problems.

You aren’t that special. Universal health care works. Gun control works. Mandatory voting works. All of these things have been tried in other countries and have been policy for decades or centuries in those countries.

You are absolutely ruining our conservatives' simple minded theories with all your real world facts. All of their ivory tower theories start out with the assumption that you do not exist.

e.g. "If people can get free health care they will go to see doctors just for fun and then things will cost too much!"

I like how this was just one point and you went off on your anti-american rant. I'm all for the first two out of the three that you mentioned there.

Congratulations, you have assumed and now you are an ass.

I didn’t assume anything, your point was “well if we tried that, what if this thing happened” like there is no way to tell. There IS a way to tell, look at the other countries that have already done this.

It’s irrelevant whether or not you are for or against the examples I used. I just find it uniquely American to act like if it isn’t currently what Americans do, then nobody must have ever tried it and to speak of the idea as if it is purely theoretical.

If you’re against it and care, then next time instead of fear mongering in the theoretical, you can educate yourself and offer an informed opinion instead, using real data from the many countries where this is already a thing.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_voting

I just find it uniquely American to act like if it isn’t currently what Americans do, then nobody must have ever tried it and to speak of the idea as if it is purely theoretical.

Again, I never acted like that. This is a bold assumption on your part.

If you’re against it and care, then next time instead of fear mongering in the theoretical, you can educate yourself and offer an informed opinion instead, using real data from the many countries where this is already a thing.

I'm aware of countries that take part such as Australia or Belgium. As such I'm aware of their faults too. You know the uninformed voters I was referring to? That's called a donkey vote sometimes. Your system fails to address that. Add on the logistics of tracking participation, dealing with penalties and what have you even accomplished? It genuinely sounds as if you want to control an aspect of peoples lives that should not be controlled.

Oh and since you're so very interested in American culture and what makes us different, has it ever occurred to you that with how nasty things can get on election days that compulsory voting with penalties might just be a further punishment to those already having unfortunate experiences? Republicans are known to harass and heckle other voters at the polls.

Look, there's a lot of things I believe we could adopt from other countries but there's also a lot of work to be done in general. We're not ready for something like this. Your attitudes and assumptions have shown that you are quite uninformed yourself for someone who claims to be so knowledgeable.

In your initial comment, you said “having people vote for a random name could be disastrous”. That is pure speculation, based on nothing. Other countries do it and have for a very long time, it is absolutely not “disastrous”. Flawed? Possibly, all systems are. But perfectly functional and as good or better than optional voting.

Thinking that Americans for whatever reason are unable to do this when other culturally similar countries can manage just fine and have without anything “disastrous” occurring can only be interpreted in one of two ways:

  1. You aren’t aware that this already occurs in other countries and thus are just speculating randomly with no information.

  2. You think Americans are special in one way or another, and evidence from other countries where this is successfully used isn’t applicable because “reasons”.

I assumed it was option 1. From your follow up comment, it’s clear that it is actually option 2. I apologize for assuming you were uninformed, but option 2 is arguably much worse. It’s still American exceptionalism, just not a positive version.

Personally, I think you could handle it and it would be an improvement. Despite you branding me as anti-American, I apparently have more faith in your countries competence than you do.

It will never happen for a myriad of reasons, but they have nothing to do with the efficacy of compulsory voting, and everything to do with those in power knowing how to effectively manipulate the current system.

It could be but if a candidate is that disasterous to being voted in then I'm sure they'd have heard about that candidate too. In the long run it'd probably have people more informed before they vote since they'll have to do it.

I feel like this might just be a culturally difference or something.

There are absolutely plenty of Americans who would just pick random names to get it over with. Even if we had a much more organized system that actually provided everyone with pamphlets educating them on candidates people here would still ignore it.

I get it. Guys his age need lots of rest.

(He's now the oldest one in the race so you're damn right I'm going to say everything about Trump they said about Biden)

Convicted Felon Donald Project 2025 Trump doubles Down on Presidential Debate Cowardice

Look at that guy run! You wouldn't know he was in his 70s by the way he's running away from Harris!

He’s a bully. Bullies won’t enter a fight if they don’t think their ego can take the repercussions.

He's such a pussy, he needs to be careful that he doesn't grab himself by accident.

Oooooh, don't you think he looks tired and scared? Trump's too much of a coward to debate Kamala, just like we all knew he would be

Awww, poor Dementia Don the racist rapist with 34 felonies that can't complete a coherent sentence, is scared. BIG SCARED!!! Chicken ass bitch.

He may be orange, but he's yeller. Yeller bellied, new york city slicker, con man, lying, no account motherfucker. Fuck him and all his people. Hope he dies scared, alone, and confused in a prison infirmary with shit in his diaper.

That’s Draft Dodger Dementia Don the racist rapist with 34 felonies!

Trump worried he might not be the better golfer in this debate

“John Doe 174” (a.k.a. Mr. Trump) certainly wants to avoid being asked about a young 13-year old girl named Katie Johnson, who was ordered to perform various sexual services for him on Epstein island 🏝️ on multiple occasions.

#Unfit Pervy Pedo

It's one thing to point out that Trump has these kinds of accusations against him, but keep that 13 year old rape victim's name out of your mouth. Why does she have to be a prop in your political game?

We knew about this exact accusation back in 2016, but people just started caring about it in the past couple months.

It speaks to you not giving a single shit about sexual assault victims, but really only caring that you have ammo against Trump. It's gross.

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I really, really, really want to see campaign ads calling Trump out as a coward and chicken.

Dodge the draft.

Dodge the debate.

Like a typical cowardly bully, running away from any fights he doesn't know he can win.

Just 30 seconds of "Is Trump a yellow bellied coward? Clip of him backing out of debate. Followed by the rest of the air time of just a chicken running around clucking."

I could see a nice 30 second ad, with the first 28 seconds having some monotone dude read off all these things, and the the last two seconds it shows Trump in one of his diaper pictures and he just says “Little Bitch”.

Pussy bitch.

Pussies are tough and after they take a pounding they squeeze out a fucking human. This is more flaccid mushroom dick energy.

Aw... what happened to:

"I got him out of the race, and that means we have Kamala. I think she’s gonna be better. She’s so bad. She’s so pathetic. She’s so fucking bad."

Can't make fun of her for being a woman or black like he did Biden for being tired and old? Where's that "Grab 'em by the pussy" bravado now?

still waiting for an outlet to post the actual fact that trump and his muppets are scared fucking cowards

It continues to surprise me that such a winey, cowardly, inauthentic and excuse ridden blob is able to muster devotion from so many people. Racism must be a powerful drug.

It's not all racism. He reminds them of themselves. Dumb. Loud. Uneducated. Tasteless. Trash.

You ever see a picture of his mother? And he wants to fuck his daughter... It's like he's getting high on his own supply! No wonder you think it's like a drug...

It’s not like they’re changing the fighter of an underground boxing match the day before. Oh, wait, he is so senile, that’s exactly what he thinks is going on.

Hahahaha how can you Americans vote for such a pussy.

Hahaha

Hahaha how can your life be so pathetic as to troll in every thread? Go touch grass dude.

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Once the polls flip, trump will be begging Kamala to debate him out of desperation

If Trump refuses to debate, could Kamala still use that airtime to give a campaign speech or something? Like ABC has that time slot blocked out for the debate already, might as well use it productively even if there's no debate

I'm reminded of the South Park episode where Cartman tries to avoid fighting Wendy.

Old chickenshit finally getting the picture is he?

Ok let's go back to the old format. It's only fair

Trump would spend the whole time griping that the debate was being run by the League of Women Voters.