Billboards Calling Trump Chicken for Running from Debates Pop Up in Pennsylvania

AbsentBird@lemm.ee to politics @lemmy.world – 1019 points –

Reminds me of that SNL skit he was in: https://youtu.be/7AWuBh1MbbM?si=UVg016Prcl9WbYYB

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I love it. But I'd love more signs pointing out how much he hates veterans. That's something I'd donate to.

And that he hates unions, in areas of high union population

Republican Voters Against Trump have been running veteran billboards for a while. The DNC has been running billboards calling him and anti-union scab.

I think the chicken angle hits a bit different though, a lot of people write off everything trump says as just talk, and many attacks seem to get ignored as slander, but the fact he's unwilling to debate is a plain and uncontested fact, one that makes him look weak.

I want more about how he's the only president to advocate for a complete gun ban.

I can't believe Harris's campaign isn't pressing harder on that point.

Him being afraid of debating Harris again makes me believe he's a little less braindead than I could assume, lmao.

I'm just trying to imagine the person who drives through town, sees that sign, and makes up their mind on who to vote for based on that message.

Everyones mind is made up. At this point it's just about turn out. If you can make a candidate look more Pathetic right before voting, the enthusiasm to support them by actually doing something that requires a little effort dwindles.

At this point it’s just about turn out.

Does this actually boost turnout? Its not particularly functional. You'd maybe think signs about checking your registration and money to help people get to the polls more easily would be a better investment. Does it juice enthusiasm? Is someone seeing this and deciding to vote who otherwise wouldn't?

If you can make a candidate look more Pathetic right before voting

That appears to be the pitch. Heckling Trump will somehow depress his base of support, rather than riling them up. People will see these signs and feel something other than contempt for the folks putting the banners up and it will become a reminder to show up to the polls.

Is that worth more than money kicked to a campaign office to GOTV the old fashioned way? Idk. Feels more like a campaign staffer is being cheeky and wasting campaign resources on a vanity project to me.

I mostly agree with you. But maybe it would have an impact on Trump himself. Either by motivating him to debate, where he might say more stupid shit which could potentially turn off voters who might be leaning Trump but are still iffy. Or again the impact on Trump when these pics go viral on Twitter, even if it doesn’t motivate him to debate, it could still get to him to where he brings this up at rallies and again says some stupid shit which makes him look bad to tenuous voters.

But maybe it would have an impact on Trump himself.

To do what? Have another debate? Trump not debating is useful, because it gives the media something to hound him over. But having another debate just becomes a new spectacle. It doesn't benefit Harris. She proved she's not Biden, which was the only bar she really needed to cross. A second debate won't materially benefit her.

he might say more stupid shit which could potentially turn off voters

The shit he's saying doesn't turn off voters because his voters agree with him. The "Black people are eating your dogs" is just a saying-the-quiet-part-out-loud kind of racism that Republicans love. The "Democrats will let you abort a baby after its born" line is a lie that the pro-life people eat up. These statements validate the bigots and the fascists. They don't scare them away.

it could still get to him to where he brings this up at rallies and again says some stupid shit

Waiting for Trump to say something so stupid that he loses the election is just democrats Waiting for Godot.

I think you drastically underestimate how many undecideds are in the county and sit and say nothing. There are many people that don't decide until the day of. Go vote and don't take it for granted.

Undecideds are drastically overestimated. People who poll undecided with such polar candidates may feel disillusioned by both candidates or they prefer a candidate that is outside of what their family or demographic prefers and they feel conflicted about it. If someone is so truly apathetic about these candidates they aren't going to bother to vote for either. Passionate voters are bad enough about showing up to vote. Very few of these people are going to suddenly resonate with a candidate based on positive or negative campaigning. I really think it's all about nudging the ends of the bell curves on voter turnout for either party.

This is not factual. It's blatantly been proven wrong. I did a paper about it in college. A vast majority of the voting population is undecided.

https://www.dataforprogress.org/insights/2024/5/30/measuring-the-swing-evaluating-the-key-voters-of-2024

There is only about 20 percent total of voters that are always on a side. Many can swing either way for many reasons and many don't decide until the last two weeks.

This sort of disinformation leads people to a false sense of security and sways people not to vote thinking that it's already locked up. That is not the truth.

Every time I hear about these mythical people who don’t know a thing about politics until right before an election I envy them.

I mean it's how a lot of people operate. Just paying very little attention to anything other than what is important to them.

But didn't he say he won? While rattling off bingo numbers that seemed to have no correlation with the Polish?

Edit: Oh, god. I've gone for too many jokes at once. Maybe it's time I have a kid so I can relish in their disappointment of such situations.

Edit Edit: Wow. I'm really pessimistic today.

They need to pop up in Florida, all around Mar-a-Lago.

Tooto chicken debate!

It's a cock-fighting-like event but more civilised where chickens debate each other, they each have little tables & get prep time.
The winner gets a bucket of mealworms. The loser gets the same, bcs chickens are good girls.

Too-to ("Tutu") was the legendary supreme chicken debate champion that a set of debate rules is now named after, in her honour.

(TIL when I searched for a pic there is a chicken tutu market)

It's dumb and petty, and yet it's the level that you need to stoop to to deal with people like Trump, they only understand pettiness.

They can't get mad about this just because democrats are better at.

Real or not all this reminds me of is the later seasons of West Wing.

No need to change the hair color either. Chicken yellow. But they had to screw up with the face.

I wish the dems would let this go. They’re going to get him to agree to debate and then Kamala is going to make some minor flub that the press will run wild with despite Trump constantly speaking in word salad. The last thing you want is a “Howard Dean scream” this late in the campaign cycle. Just let Tim Walz mop up the floor with Vance in October, and then let us all vote.

No, this is exactly where they can hurt him.

Trump and his followers believe that they represent the silent majority that still has "real" values - like honor, strength and misogyny.

Calling them out as weird and cowards attacks exactly these values. It turns their own self image against them.

Trump and his followers believe that they represent the silent majority

So does Harris and her Democrats. That's the whole "But we won the popular vote!" defense, every time a Democrat gets ratfvcked out of a few hundred votes in a swing state on election day.

The bitter truth is that, with over half of the population unwilling or unable to vote, these candidates are at best representing a plurality.

Calling them out as weird and cowards attacks exactly these values.

As elections go, the common denominator between the two candidates appears to be their refusal to endorse their own party's policies. Trump keeps backing away from Project 2025 and insisting it has nothing to do with his campaign. Harris is falling over herself to get away from the Genocide Joe name tag and to distance herself from the litany of undelivered platform of promises - from gun control to M4A to higher education relief to a Green New Deal - that they can never rally enough votes in their own caucus to pass.

The battlefront is entirely what the other person is going to do if they get into office. Kamala promises not to sign a bill banning abortion. Trump promises not to sign a bill that legalizes immigration. Both promise not to sign a bill that will increase your taxes or cut your benefits. But that's it. It's all defense, no offense.

The best either candidate seems willing to promise is that nothing will get done.

Hell no. Play to win. As soon as you start playing to "not lose", you'll lose.

I love the confidence of this and let's not pretend she won't smack him harder the second time. She's a former prosecutor and she's also not 800 years old.

He's scared, weak, and fragile. Call him out on it.

The last debate hurt his polling numbers measurably. The press can say whatever they want. Doesn't make it true

This is the level of our national discourse. And yeah the republicans started it and are worse in many ways. And maybe this sign is fake and just meant as a funny joke. But Jesus Christ we're killing ourselves.

The billboards like this are oftentimes from Republicans that are anti-MAGA, this one however is some guy that was a low level cabinet member of Clinton who decided to create his own PAC (Mad Dog PAC).

It isn't the DNC putting these up, it's basically people that just want to troll Trump, and when Trump stops running I'm sure most of these groups will move on to other things.

The way things are going, if and when Trump exists there will be a crazier guy or gal replacing him. And we'll keep circling the drain trying to make the other guy look stupid.

I'm not 100% sure on that. They will 100% double down on evil, but they will do it like the Turtle, just a giant smirk as they fuck Americans over. I think they know the batshit stuff doesn't really work outside of Trump, not like backstabbing and sneaky subversion of our country does.

The dude is a grifter. He spread so much fake shit about mueller investigation along with that crazy chick louise mensch

Just google ‘Louise Mensch Claude Taylor’ you’ll see the bs

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/08/louise-mensch-sidekick-truefactsstated-was-fooled-by-hoaxer.html

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/28/trump-tweets-hoax-louise-mensch-claude-taylor

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/louise-mensch-donald-trump-sex-trafficking-hoax-claim-claude-taylor-twitter-a7918446.html

I think you're being downvoted because if you had a reputable link you'd just link it.

Any time someone says "just Google it" it sets off massive bullshit alarms.

Yeah this guy doesn't have the most reputable friends, but are you saying you believe Trump/Barrs spin of the report? Trump's DOJ did him a solid, and Barr did another Iran-Contra style cover up.

Lol how did you even come to that conclusion? All I’m saying is this dude lied on twitter about being an insider to the mueller investigation and leveraged that into this PAC that he takes a salary on.

He spread so much fake shit about mueller investigation ...

Sorry, I read that as not believing in the report itself, as many believe the Trump/Barr version of the report, stating the opposite of what Mueller actually wrote.

As for this guy, I kinda remember him and noticing he was a bit ... out there. However, his billboards get under Trump's skin and that's fine by me. And I would imagine if you ran a PAC you would take a salary from it, and it looks like besides a $100 donation to a Maryland Dem none of that PAC money is actually going into politician coffers either. Way too many of these PACs and SuperPACs dumping millions of dollars into local/state elections to swing votes.

She's one of them mean girls.

Not paid for by Kamala, it's paid for by a PAC

"The Democratic National Committee is running a mobile billboard campaign tonight around Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania, trying to taunt him into agreeing to a second debate with Kamala Harris, the New York Times reports.

Said the billboard: “There’s no debate: Trump’s a chicken.”

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/09/23/us/trump-harris-election/d57b4d42-4fa4-54e5-94da-716b80698b35?smid=url-share

Not the person you are replying to, but note that you are talking about different billboards here. The one in the photo here is paid by Mad Dog PAC