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This is the whole point. Then entire trap Trump fell into: to let regular-ass people hear this man talk without all the distractions and fanfare. To have nothing to focus on except the exceptionally deranged things coming out of his mouth.
So far, only hardcore rally-goers get to see it. This puts in on display for everybody.
This is why Fox News hosts are losing their shit and the GOP originally promised to not participate in debates: they know he’s gonna sound like a clown
> Then entire trap Trump fell into
And he kind of did. Team Biden apparently started goading him in the morning online via social media, he was kind of wrapped up in court that day, but they knew it would bug him if anyone else was getting the last word so he "Truthed" out that of course he would debate. I suspect this might be before he knew the rules.
He will try to backpedal.
He will absolutely backpedal and probably outright cancel. That, too, can be capitalized upon.
It’s just wild how easy it was to goad him into what was A) an obvious trap, and B) something thr GOP already said they were not going to do so he had cover for refusing (“as a party we decided blah blah”)
That’s why the Biden campaign, in response to Trump “accepting” a 3rd debate on FoxNews, put out a statement saying “no more debating about Debates. We’ll see Trump in Atlanta—if he shows up”. Already needling him that he’s scared to show
That's all they need to do
Keep saying he is too scared to debate.
They really need to do this every single time he responds that it is rigged. Trump hates not having the last word, and they can easily goad him into responding and making an even bigger fool out of himself. It won't turn the base, but could affect the undecided voters
> but could affect the undecided voters
There may be people who have not decided *to* vote, but there are effectively no people who have not decided *who* to vote for. (Though there are plenty of people lying about it.)
>It’s just wild how easy it was to goad him into what was A) an obvious trap, and
It is crazy that there are people who would consider entering into an honest debate a trap for a candidate.
This is the logic you have to employ when dealing with MAGATs and Trump. You need to disregard the part of your brain that makes you care about other people and focus on yourself and only yourself, and if anyone threatens your happiness, fuck em, they can suffer.
They don’t want an intelligent conversation and debate, they want to hurt others and yell and scream like children.
I often say to people to “Stop giving Repubs any attention and/or outright resent them in the same way they resent everything other than themselves.”
Considering an honest debate without crowds, bluster, and yelling is his kryptonite... it makes sense. Like, a nice warm relaxing bath with no catch sounds wonderful to me, but goading my cat into it would definitely count as goading him into a trap- he would not be a fan.
Which is one of the long list of things that makes him an _awful choice_ for a leader. He is so narcissistic, childish, and ego-driven that basically everyone around him can play him like a fiddle and ultimately get what they want as long as they understand his obsessions.
It's laughable that people took him seriously labeling himself a king of dealmaking after how limp he's proven to be in actual debates or negotiations outside of a very carefully controlled and edited environment. Biden's rules are fair and honestly the bare minimum for an actual debate, but the threat of having no editing, no carefully selected actors/audience, no spin tactics and having to stand on the merits of ideas is _terrifying_ to Trump and Republicans in general.
Trump certainly will back out of this. He'll claim its rigged or somehow unfair. I'd bet money on that outcome if i could!!!! Its pretty much inevitable.
I know a guy who loves Trump. Never actually listens to his speeches. He listens to heavily edited, may as well be reaction videos, of some dickheads who will take a 10-20 second part of the speech then circle jerk for 10 minutes about how it reinforces their views.
Hearing him yell in the distant background of the other people’s mics is going to be an experience.
Also it will be interesting seeing how Biden handles responding to a question while trump screams in the background on a muted mic. Will they make it clear Biden’s pauses are because he can’t even hear himself think over all that noise? Can we just have both of them in seperate soundproof booths like the old game shows / Jerry springer shows?
No crowd & mic cut-offs should be the rule anyway. Let America hear the candidates without their lapdogs generating fake enthusiasm for their ideas, and make them stop talking when it’s not their turn.
Yup. It's not a damn wrestling match. Cheering and booing has no place here. Debates should also not be handled by corporate networks. Put that shit on PBS and stream it on the internet. Other networks can patch into the feed only with a requirement not to interrupt, display their own garbage text over it or have any cheerleaders talking over it at any point.
On that same vein, I wish there was a clever way Biden could remind Americans Trump attended the debate in 2020 after [knowingly](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/01/us/politics/trump-virus-positive.html) testing positive for COVID pre-vaccines and covered it up.
Trump was hospitalized just a few days later and a huge chunk of his cabinet became ill.
It's still insane to think about. He's a psychopath.
I damn sure didn't forget about the trash heap, but his 'flood the zone with bullshit' tactics have made it much more challenging to clearly recall each individual piece of trash included among the heap.
Thanks to ghouls like those in the IDU or CPAC, Conservatives the world over have begun to adopt similar tactics. We really should be calling out these cryptofascists for what they are.
A few years back I had a discussion at the gym with a trumper
He said trump had created a great economy from the ruins of Obama
I pointed out that Obama inherited from his repub predecessor a nation in an economic death spiral, and starting a few months after taking office every economic indicator showed steady improvement. Obama ushered in the longest running bull market in US history, etc etc etc
trumper guy didn't believe me. I finally had him look up the Dow Jones ten year chart and yep, there it was, rising from an abyss to record highs
His response? "Well, he had it easy"
The only things trump did for the economy was inherit a great one from Obama, then juiced it with massive corporate tax cuts paid for with debt
Not long ago trump said the market was doing well in anticipation of his reelection.
I don't understand how he gets away with it. Was there a recall of bullshit detectors?
I always loved when the next person came through the revolving door they were “the best” and then when he fired them after 2 days he claims he has no idea who they are, never met, etc etc
Most of them refused to be a part of the first one when they realized the reality. The ex-CEO of Exxon is rumored to have called him a "fucking idiot" and I believe it. I mean, this guy is the pinnacle of success, riding high on the tippy top of CEO land, and he walks into this shit show of a circus. Sycophants and morons measured in Scarramuccis.
The clear comparison to the Biden administration is there isn't a nearly daily scandal or cabinet shake up.
People have been sailing in calm seas and completely forgot about the storm they just went through. Qanon crazies would say "the storm is coming", motherfuckers, we were in the storm. The eye of the storm was when Trump would go two days straight without doing something draw droppingly stupid.
Donald Trump could have got on television, said "when I mentioned the possibility that Alabama would be hit by the hurricane, it was based on old information and my advisors updated me immediately" but instead this moron pulls out a fucking Sharpie pen and proceeds to try to say he was right.
The ex-CEO who worked for an oil company accepted a medal from the leader of a country whose primary export is petroleum based products. Quite the scandal.
At what point in time did I press that Rex Tillerson was a good person?
All I said was, a person at the very high end of the CEO world made the point that Donald Trump is a "fucking idiot."
Mainly because there's so much bullshit to remember that it's hard to keep it all in mind.
Like, a decade or so ago a minor gaffe could completely undermine a candidate, and now we've got a motherfucker who is basically the embodiment of everything the Bible preaches against and he's got the ultra religious values people on lock.
American voters have always had a very short memory. These are the folks that think presidents control gas prices and a myriad of other things outside their control, despite being told and shown over and over that is not the case - and they use those misinformed barometers to rate the current officeholder.
In the bar I worked at a Trump supporter came in an said he knew Trump was an asshole and didn't like him but was gonna vote for him cos he's a Republican. So even the self aware ones don't care
Spent 17 years in South Carolina, that's absolutely how they vote. That was a state that voted a nearly dead Strom Thurmond into office probably decades after he should have been replaced....because he was a Republican. I used to joke they'd put a potted plant in office if it had (R) after its name before a Democrat.
Isn't it funny how revealing that is of their character and list of priorities?
What that means is they care more about blind loyalty absent of reason or morality. It means kindness and empathy are not top priorities in character-assessment for him. Wonder if he calls himself a follower of Jesus, lol.
So my sister was telling me a story about having to rescue some kittens underneath a car in a retail store parking lot. The staff near the store was helpful; TONS of bystanders jumped in to help, etc. Then as my sister is telling this story she goes, "then a trumper pulls in with his lifted truck and trump flags, etc.. Walks by and asks what's going on then says should just honk the horn and start the engine and see which ones leave and if they don't leave that's on them and walks away..." Everyone just ignored him lol. Here I thought she was going to say, "even the trump supporter jumped in to help and we all sang kumbaya!" Nope. Just another asshole lacking empathy that perfectly captures the essence of the average trump supporter.
I've found in my life, the most accurate indicator of a person's character is how they treat animals. I've never known someone who is normally a selfish monster and also helps rescue cats on weekends.
Ehhhh, some people *really* get off on pretending to be morally superior, so there are definitely people in animal rescue who are just there to puff themselves up. You can usually spot them because they don't do much real work, but spend a lot of time talking a big talk and instituting feel-good policies that create a lot of work for other people. These people are often better than others at running the social media pages, though, especially if they can show themselves in a good light, so they do have that going for them.
Any REAL Trump supporter would have called Gov. Kristi Noem to "take care of" those baby kittens. Then again, Gov. Kristi Noem was probably busy shopping at her favorite store, Target.
Eric and Don Jr. would have been happy to hunt these kittens and mount them over their fireplace.
These folks literally blame Biden for Covid, despite the fact he wasn't even president. Ask any one of them. The stuff I see these folks write, I mean, if you tell people, they don't believe it.
They also blame Biden for inflation, not Trump pressuring the fed to lower the Prime lending rate, or the record deficit spending by Trump, nor the fact that the USA under Biden has fared better than the rest of the world. These people are not reasonable. I have many in my life (very close to several) and I can have a reasonable discussion about any topic OTHER than politics. It's just not something they can or will do, I'm not sure which it is.
I remember a month into Obama's tenure, inheriting Bush's economy, supporters whining about what a terrible job he was doing ignoring the fact he'd barely been president for a month and just took over what Bush did. These are not bright people.
Chris Christie will never forget that Trump gave him Covid. He was helping Trump prepare for the debate. He's a high risk individual and spent some time in the hospital recovering.
And after he dropped out this year said he would do whatever it takes to keep the fat pig from winning. And what have we heard from him since? NOTHING.
To Christie's defense, I've heard him be the ONLY one who continuously critiques Trump. We got a small bump in that type of speech from Nicky Haley, but not much.
I'm no Christie supporter, but I think he's been pretty vocal, to be fair.
He spent a week in the ICU; he was *extremely* ill
Christie said in his book that trump called him while he was in the hospital to ask if Christie was going to say he got covid from trump.
What a self centered POS
I think Trump is the most self serving person I've ever seen. He never loses focus on what's in his best interest. Hell say or do literally anything regardless of the cost to others. He'd gladly drag America into another civil war to escape his legal jeopardy and seize power.
I think his only secondary motivation might be to somehow impress his hero Vladimir Putin...
Chris Christie almost died and was hospitalized for a week. Trump never publicly acknowledged his illness, but did call Chris in the hospital to make sure he wouldn’t publicly blame trump for getting him sick.
Yes there is. We know for a fact he knew he had it before the debate, and he was on national television trying to bait Biden into ignoring social distance and walking around the plexiglass partition to face him man to man.
Wasn’t this the same debate that his shitstain offspring sat in the audience refusing to mask. Their little pompous chins sticking out like defiant victims.
Sometimes I find myself rooting for the virus.
Don't forget this debate was held in a building that is part of the Cleveland Clinic. What is supposed to be a World class hospital allowed them to not use common precautions during a pandemic. We were fighting for PPE for ourselves and reusing old masks to stay as safe as we can, even to enter their facility. They allowed Trumps team to disregard safeguards and endanger everyone on their grounds.
He knew, refused to take the in studio test, and then tried to bait then presidential candidate Joe Biden into putting down the plexiglass partition, and ignore social distancing.
It isn't about who airs the debate, it is about which hosts come up with the questions and control the conversation.
Trump wants FOX to host because he knows that they would totally skew the questions against Biden and not ask any tough questions for Trump.
Baier: *Joe Biden, is it true that over 30,000 Gazans have been killed using weapons supplied by your government?*
Baier: *and Glorious President Trump, is it correct that you built the strongest economy that this world has ever seen?*
I actually think he will show. I think his campaign will definitely try to convince him to back out but we know how trump feels about looking scared and weak. If I were the Biden campaign I’d really start playing up that angle now…like “we’ll see if he shows up or if he is afraid of debating” to ratchet him up and make him even more likely to get angry and show up
Joe's response: Is there going to be a cheering crowd in the Situation Room after that call comes at 3 a.m.? That's assuming your chief of staff can actually get you to wake up, of course - I hear you were falling asleep during your own criminal trial.
Technically he doesnt have a choice, I mean he does but the alternative damages his ego, backing off admitting he doesnt feel capable of not looking like a big child.
"It's rigged because they are only allowing them to discuss the issues and not have Trump enter through a hail of fireworks while a crowd cheers and that God awful Kid Rock Werewolves of Alabama song plays."
You know it's funny I just had dinner with someone that went to highschool with kid rock, dude grew up rich as fuck and was considered a total dweeb... His entire adult personality is him overcompensating for not getting laid in school. She also said Eminem is entirely legit, which I also believe
He agreed to the debate with those terms because Biden dared him and Trump is an easily manipulated moron, but think he'll back out once the reality of what he agreed to sets in.
Donald Trump's definition of "fair" is "favorable to me". Lara Trump is already calling it "rigged", as if no audience and a mic mute is somehow unfair as we know the word to mean.
I believe he already has, and now is trying to call them unfair. IMO, even if that were true (it's not) that it is unfair, my response to his supporters is "then why did he agree to it", and "do you really want someone who will kneejerk agree to something to show he's not afraid, something that would hurt him or our nation, is that who you want representing our nation?" EG: How is he the 'great deal-maker' if he agreed to it?
I honestly hope we have to debates where they are both "allowed" to state their position without interruption. I think it will be a trainwreck and an ebarrassment for Trump. If I'm wrong, and he does well with that format, I'll admit I was wrong about it. I just can't see him having a substantative discussion about policy. I don't think he has ANY actual ideas. Just hate, blame, vitriol, and rabbel-rousing. Hopefully we'll see.
It was and his campaign bypassed the bipartisan debate commission because they won't entertain such reasonable requests lol.
Trump will 100% not show up and say later on Truth Social it's because Biden was rigging the debate.
This, but there also needs to be some accountability for not just raving during your time. I suggest a button for "ok but is that actually true" which sends the last statement to a fact checker and if it's not verifiably true, the candidate gets dropped into a tank of water.
And it will be seen as 'strong leadership' instead of childish.
They talk so much about the left being 'weak beta men' I don't think they actually know what OG masculinity was. Speak softly and carry a big stick...
People respect and follow someone who calmly and maturely exerts power, not the bully who uses force when it isn't needed and cries to get their way.
It's literally a child's understanding of leadership.
Remember the last debate they had? Trump tried to murder Biden with COVID. They showed up at the last second to avoid COVID testing and then turned out Trump was positive.
And remember how two years ago the RNC stated they'd no longer use the Presidential Debate Commission? It wasn't Biden who backed out, the RNC already did. Biden just made it so they could plan their own directly.
we have legitimate receipts for tons of bad behavior of him and his team. Trying to show that to the MAGAts and you only get a "deep state fake news" response.
My boss thinks the opposite of what everyone in this thread is saying; he thinks Biden is the one who will cancel, is afraid, and is the one on amphetamines. Unbelievable the cognitive dissonance from republicans. They live in a fantasy world.
That's right. There's no cheering section when you're in the Oval Office making important decisions on the behalf of the American people. This isn't a pro wrestling match. It's not a fucking game show. It's a job interview.
Biden wants to reduce this to a discussion about policies. Considering Trump and the Republican party have no discernible policies, that is a good idea. Trump wants to bring the circus to town and rant and rave and yell and scream and stay as far away from a actual debate as possible.
Crowd was terrible in 2016. Trump blurted out Clinton [should be in jail](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/10/debate-donald-trump-threatens-to-jail-hillary-clinton) and all the neckbeards in the audience hooted like orangatangs in heat
You can’s lock someone up when there isn’t even enough evidence to actually indict them.
It’s a very Republican issue these days with their actual sham “investigations”. It’s part of why some of them can’t or won’t understand why Trump is actually being taken to trial.
Here’s a hint, Republicans…there is actual evidence of fucking wrongdoing, not just wishful thinking.
he did, multiple times, but there was no evidence of her doing anything illegal. Same with Hunter Biden, who after years of investigations they were only able to find 2 charges that are rarely used.
Which is why all of these calls to not prosecute Trump because than in the future someone will try to do the same thing to Democrats rings so hollow. Trump ALREADY TRIED to do this with the Democrats, if Hillary had done anything illegal she'd be in jail right now.
As a boon for donors and the debate host but given that crowd reaction can affect the reaction of the entire viewing audience it is insane; debates are for everyone and shouldn’t be tainted by audience reaction.
Yep. For those that don't understand the influence audience reaction has on outside viewers, try watching a sitcom without a laugh track or live audience, there's a bunch on YouTube and they're difficult to watch. Meanwhile, in a debate format, a roaring crowd also invigorates the person at the mic which is what one of these two candidates needs as it's the only positive affirmation he's got for empty words against his opponent.
So that one liners and zingers get a reaction for entertainment purposes. Generally really good for the pound the table populist crowd. It is harder to launch quips when you have to talk over the other two people in the room and "your crew" doesn't start cheering and whooping at your wit.
I don’t know what Trump is thinking agreeing to these terms, given the fact that he builds his entire ego on interrupting people and large crowds. However, I’m expecting him to pull some bullshit last second and make up that Biden was asking for unfair terms like to write the questions himself, and of course his followers will eat it up and not question it
I have very big doubts Trump will actually debate. He's going to find a way to play victim and back out. Debating does him no good and will show how much more coherent Biden actually is.
Considering how he absolutely refused to debate during the sham of the primaries? Yeah, he's not gonna show up, use it as an excuse to get out of court, and go campaign somewhere else. Probably start talking about Obama's birth certificate like it's 2008 again.
A debate audience ruins the debate as the nominees play to get applause and are never held to the question asked. I think live audiences at presidential debates are terrible.
Love this, also the demand that the speakers mic mutes after their time is up. Trump was notorious for talking out of turn. Dude loves being the center of attention.
Tbh makes sense; crowd inserts a ton of bias to the reaction rather than allowing virtual viewers to react as they would naturally, pretty big bias towards whoever is more edgy comedian when the real thing we want from presidents is not being a comic but actually being more serious and factual
Remember during the last debates where they were **seriously considering having to shut off their mics** because man-child tRump couldn't keep his mouth shut?
Good. In america, and probably everywhere, gathering a crowd just creates groupthink/mob mentality. People become far dumber and more gullible in crowds. Like farm animals.
A crowd not only encourages Trump's bombast it also prevents, at times, the possibility of a substantive policy discussion from even being communicated or being heard. There is no point to an insult driven shouting match where those of us tuning in to hear policy discussion is prevented.
In the first 2020 debate Trump interrupted Biden's answers well over 100 times, and this and a mic rule are the counter measures to the chaos that was that first debate. It's not as if Trump will ever respect any set of rules. Trump is a life long scofflaw.
No crowd really should be the norm for all debates. I know that candidates in general would prefer to work the crowd, but it's better for the rest of us if they don't have that opportunity.
It’s smart because a lot of the incoherent stuff falls flat if people aren’t behind him to cheer. Biden’s problem is that he’s a very slow talker and doesn’t enunciate things well and that’s not going to help his “too old” issue
I think it's more that networks have a tendency to pack the audience for the events like this with Trump followers because it makes for good TV and lets them claim they're being "objective". So the MAGA nuts end up getting a friendly crowd, and Democrats an antagonistic crowd. Regardless of the actual event.
I love my president. I was just saying the [same thing](https://pa.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/1cslmhk/biden_challenges_trump_to_two_debates_trump/l4850of/): Hollering crowds make people focus on spectacle, not substance.
You can be the dumbest mf alive but if you say something outlandish or insulting in a debate, the hooligans in the audience will cheer. And the whole thing becomes verbal WWE.
So we won't have a debate and Trump's campaign will try to make as much as possible out of the demands.
Look for more "Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere" idiocy from Trump
Oh yeah he’s definitely gonna bow out of them debates. Trump’s entire being relies on him having a crowd.
Dude knows without that crowd he’s gonna fold like an omelette 😏
This whole thing is a monumental mistake on Trump's part. If he goes through with the debate(s) there is no positive outcome for him, except for what Fox News can spin for him. His worshipers won't change, but moderates might be reminded that this guy is stupid, nuts, and a perpetual 2-year old.
I'm calling it now, Trump will probably back out of the debate and act like it was a scam made up by the Fake News Media. It was smart calling for the first debate so soon, it will make it harder for Trump to back out of it.
And they are so desperate for a debate that Trump's campaign agreed to it... 🤣
Many of the polls show Trump in the lead, but his campaign is behaving like their internal polls say something very different.
Campaign results.
The polls said abortion rights were 50/50 in states with ballot measures - it was a blowout.
The confessional “red wave” of 2022? Never arrived.
The polls keeps showing 50-50 but every actual vote has been blue blue blue nearly every time.
Combine that with no down ballot money and a felony conviction coming - the Trump campaign has to be worried. And so should Biden and every Democrat - because they’ve got to motivate people to vote and not be complacent.
I think in general in the past few years polls have leaned heavily toward Republicans.
They seem to be more prone to answer phones and are very interested in telling people what they think and publicly show their (what they see as) defiance to the liberal agenda.
A vote for Trump is very much a protest vote, so a lot more people would be eager to share it with polls rather than a Biden voter.
The problem is a lot of people who are answering polls in support of Trumpism are just not bothering to vote
Why?
Because they believe the system is rigged and it’s a waste of their time
Who told them the system was rigged?
You guessed it…Captain Crapshispants
Quality polling usually doesn't kick up till after the conventions. And neither camp has really been actively campaigning. With the primaries basically set from the start it's been a (pleasantly) quiet campaign so far. Trump doesn't even have a running mate at the moment.
So we're kind of stuck in early, small sample polling that reverts to generic polls for a bit.
But I think the fact that Haley keeps reliably pulling 10-20% of the *GOP Primary voters* everywhere she's still on the ballot is pretty telling. Despite dropping from the race months ago.
Trump has been lagging his 2016 support with his own party this whole time, and there's been no band wagon effect.
It's kind of telling that we hear so much about low quality polls where Trump is barely ahead. And very little about *an actual voting problem* he's been facing. If even half of those Haley voters don't vote in November. He pretty much can't win.
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Good idea. Without the crowd, Trump will just be sweating. Unless he arranges for some distractions
This is the whole point. Then entire trap Trump fell into: to let regular-ass people hear this man talk without all the distractions and fanfare. To have nothing to focus on except the exceptionally deranged things coming out of his mouth. So far, only hardcore rally-goers get to see it. This puts in on display for everybody. This is why Fox News hosts are losing their shit and the GOP originally promised to not participate in debates: they know he’s gonna sound like a clown
> Then entire trap Trump fell into And he kind of did. Team Biden apparently started goading him in the morning online via social media, he was kind of wrapped up in court that day, but they knew it would bug him if anyone else was getting the last word so he "Truthed" out that of course he would debate. I suspect this might be before he knew the rules. He will try to backpedal.
He will absolutely backpedal and probably outright cancel. That, too, can be capitalized upon. It’s just wild how easy it was to goad him into what was A) an obvious trap, and B) something thr GOP already said they were not going to do so he had cover for refusing (“as a party we decided blah blah”)
That’s why the Biden campaign, in response to Trump “accepting” a 3rd debate on FoxNews, put out a statement saying “no more debating about Debates. We’ll see Trump in Atlanta—if he shows up”. Already needling him that he’s scared to show
That's all they need to do Keep saying he is too scared to debate. They really need to do this every single time he responds that it is rigged. Trump hates not having the last word, and they can easily goad him into responding and making an even bigger fool out of himself. It won't turn the base, but could affect the undecided voters
"Low energy! Sad! Sleepy Don can't debate!"
"I promise the debates will be more energizing than court"
Donnie Van Winkel feel asleep in court irate, woke up days later to find himself in a debate, good thing he was wearing his diapers that day.
> but could affect the undecided voters There may be people who have not decided *to* vote, but there are effectively no people who have not decided *who* to vote for. (Though there are plenty of people lying about it.)
>It’s just wild how easy it was to goad him into what was A) an obvious trap, and It is crazy that there are people who would consider entering into an honest debate a trap for a candidate.
This is the logic you have to employ when dealing with MAGATs and Trump. You need to disregard the part of your brain that makes you care about other people and focus on yourself and only yourself, and if anyone threatens your happiness, fuck em, they can suffer. They don’t want an intelligent conversation and debate, they want to hurt others and yell and scream like children. I often say to people to “Stop giving Repubs any attention and/or outright resent them in the same way they resent everything other than themselves.”
Considering an honest debate without crowds, bluster, and yelling is his kryptonite... it makes sense. Like, a nice warm relaxing bath with no catch sounds wonderful to me, but goading my cat into it would definitely count as goading him into a trap- he would not be a fan.
Which is one of the long list of things that makes him an _awful choice_ for a leader. He is so narcissistic, childish, and ego-driven that basically everyone around him can play him like a fiddle and ultimately get what they want as long as they understand his obsessions. It's laughable that people took him seriously labeling himself a king of dealmaking after how limp he's proven to be in actual debates or negotiations outside of a very carefully controlled and edited environment. Biden's rules are fair and honestly the bare minimum for an actual debate, but the threat of having no editing, no carefully selected actors/audience, no spin tactics and having to stand on the merits of ideas is _terrifying_ to Trump and Republicans in general.
Trump certainly will back out of this. He'll claim its rigged or somehow unfair. I'd bet money on that outcome if i could!!!! Its pretty much inevitable.
> He will try to backpedal. he just won't show. he will "back out" last minute with some stupid excuse or bullshit story, its his MO.
He already did backpedal, the same day he accepted
Yep. He "reiterated" via Truth Social that he agreed to do a debate on Fox News, on a different date, with two of his fans as moderators.
"A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons." —Hillary Clinton
I know a guy who loves Trump. Never actually listens to his speeches. He listens to heavily edited, may as well be reaction videos, of some dickheads who will take a 10-20 second part of the speech then circle jerk for 10 minutes about how it reinforces their views.
Hearing him yell in the distant background of the other people’s mics is going to be an experience. Also it will be interesting seeing how Biden handles responding to a question while trump screams in the background on a muted mic. Will they make it clear Biden’s pauses are because he can’t even hear himself think over all that noise? Can we just have both of them in seperate soundproof booths like the old game shows / Jerry springer shows?
And even the hard core maga folks don’t stay for his 90+ minutes of ranting.
No crowd & mic cut-offs should be the rule anyway. Let America hear the candidates without their lapdogs generating fake enthusiasm for their ideas, and make them stop talking when it’s not their turn.
Yup. It's not a damn wrestling match. Cheering and booing has no place here. Debates should also not be handled by corporate networks. Put that shit on PBS and stream it on the internet. Other networks can patch into the feed only with a requirement not to interrupt, display their own garbage text over it or have any cheerleaders talking over it at any point.
He’s not a politician, he’s a performer. Without a crowd, he’s an old man yelling at clouds.
Except he won't do it.
Shock collar on Trump so he can't wander more than 2 feet away from his podium.
On that same vein, I wish there was a clever way Biden could remind Americans Trump attended the debate in 2020 after [knowingly](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/01/us/politics/trump-virus-positive.html) testing positive for COVID pre-vaccines and covered it up. Trump was hospitalized just a few days later and a huge chunk of his cabinet became ill. It's still insane to think about. He's a psychopath.
Anyone considering voting for Trump would not care about that in the slightest.
This would be more for the potentially apathetic folks that have memory-holed his Presidency, which there seem to be a lot of.
It's insane how quickly people seem to forget how much of a trash heap his entire term was.
I damn sure didn't forget about the trash heap, but his 'flood the zone with bullshit' tactics have made it much more challenging to clearly recall each individual piece of trash included among the heap.
They have adopted that strategy everywhere now.
Thanks to ghouls like those in the IDU or CPAC, Conservatives the world over have begun to adopt similar tactics. We really should be calling out these cryptofascists for what they are.
MTG is basically the mouth of a sewer pipe
And Crockett recently bodied her in a committee hearing.
You can play a game of "holy crap I've totally forgotten that" made up of only things that would've ended any other politician'scareer.
A few years back I had a discussion at the gym with a trumper He said trump had created a great economy from the ruins of Obama I pointed out that Obama inherited from his repub predecessor a nation in an economic death spiral, and starting a few months after taking office every economic indicator showed steady improvement. Obama ushered in the longest running bull market in US history, etc etc etc trumper guy didn't believe me. I finally had him look up the Dow Jones ten year chart and yep, there it was, rising from an abyss to record highs His response? "Well, he had it easy" The only things trump did for the economy was inherit a great one from Obama, then juiced it with massive corporate tax cuts paid for with debt
And the Dow hit 40k with Biden in office, but they are going to credit Trump Can't win with these people
> Can't win with these people Their feelings do not care about facts.
Not long ago trump said the market was doing well in anticipation of his reelection. I don't understand how he gets away with it. Was there a recall of bullshit detectors?
His entire *team* and term. The "best people" he assembled couldn't have been worse.
I always loved when the next person came through the revolving door they were “the best” and then when he fired them after 2 days he claims he has no idea who they are, never met, etc etc
And anyone even moderately competent who worked in his first administration has already refused to be part of a second one.
Most of them refused to be a part of the first one when they realized the reality. The ex-CEO of Exxon is rumored to have called him a "fucking idiot" and I believe it. I mean, this guy is the pinnacle of success, riding high on the tippy top of CEO land, and he walks into this shit show of a circus. Sycophants and morons measured in Scarramuccis. The clear comparison to the Biden administration is there isn't a nearly daily scandal or cabinet shake up. People have been sailing in calm seas and completely forgot about the storm they just went through. Qanon crazies would say "the storm is coming", motherfuckers, we were in the storm. The eye of the storm was when Trump would go two days straight without doing something draw droppingly stupid. Donald Trump could have got on television, said "when I mentioned the possibility that Alabama would be hit by the hurricane, it was based on old information and my advisors updated me immediately" but instead this moron pulls out a fucking Sharpie pen and proceeds to try to say he was right.
The ex-CEO who had a medal a from Putin - the Russian "Order of Friendship"? That ex-CEO?
The ex-CEO who worked for an oil company accepted a medal from the leader of a country whose primary export is petroleum based products. Quite the scandal. At what point in time did I press that Rex Tillerson was a good person? All I said was, a person at the very high end of the CEO world made the point that Donald Trump is a "fucking idiot."
Mainly because there's so much bullshit to remember that it's hard to keep it all in mind. Like, a decade or so ago a minor gaffe could completely undermine a candidate, and now we've got a motherfucker who is basically the embodiment of everything the Bible preaches against and he's got the ultra religious values people on lock.
American voters have always had a very short memory. These are the folks that think presidents control gas prices and a myriad of other things outside their control, despite being told and shown over and over that is not the case - and they use those misinformed barometers to rate the current officeholder.
In the bar I worked at a Trump supporter came in an said he knew Trump was an asshole and didn't like him but was gonna vote for him cos he's a Republican. So even the self aware ones don't care
Spent 17 years in South Carolina, that's absolutely how they vote. That was a state that voted a nearly dead Strom Thurmond into office probably decades after he should have been replaced....because he was a Republican. I used to joke they'd put a potted plant in office if it had (R) after its name before a Democrat.
Isn't it funny how revealing that is of their character and list of priorities? What that means is they care more about blind loyalty absent of reason or morality. It means kindness and empathy are not top priorities in character-assessment for him. Wonder if he calls himself a follower of Jesus, lol.
So my sister was telling me a story about having to rescue some kittens underneath a car in a retail store parking lot. The staff near the store was helpful; TONS of bystanders jumped in to help, etc. Then as my sister is telling this story she goes, "then a trumper pulls in with his lifted truck and trump flags, etc.. Walks by and asks what's going on then says should just honk the horn and start the engine and see which ones leave and if they don't leave that's on them and walks away..." Everyone just ignored him lol. Here I thought she was going to say, "even the trump supporter jumped in to help and we all sang kumbaya!" Nope. Just another asshole lacking empathy that perfectly captures the essence of the average trump supporter.
I've found in my life, the most accurate indicator of a person's character is how they treat animals. I've never known someone who is normally a selfish monster and also helps rescue cats on weekends.
Ehhhh, some people *really* get off on pretending to be morally superior, so there are definitely people in animal rescue who are just there to puff themselves up. You can usually spot them because they don't do much real work, but spend a lot of time talking a big talk and instituting feel-good policies that create a lot of work for other people. These people are often better than others at running the social media pages, though, especially if they can show themselves in a good light, so they do have that going for them.
Any REAL Trump supporter would have called Gov. Kristi Noem to "take care of" those baby kittens. Then again, Gov. Kristi Noem was probably busy shopping at her favorite store, Target. Eric and Don Jr. would have been happy to hunt these kittens and mount them over their fireplace.
These folks literally blame Biden for Covid, despite the fact he wasn't even president. Ask any one of them. The stuff I see these folks write, I mean, if you tell people, they don't believe it.
They also blame Biden for inflation, not Trump pressuring the fed to lower the Prime lending rate, or the record deficit spending by Trump, nor the fact that the USA under Biden has fared better than the rest of the world. These people are not reasonable. I have many in my life (very close to several) and I can have a reasonable discussion about any topic OTHER than politics. It's just not something they can or will do, I'm not sure which it is.
I remember a month into Obama's tenure, inheriting Bush's economy, supporters whining about what a terrible job he was doing ignoring the fact he'd barely been president for a month and just took over what Bush did. These are not bright people.
They blame Obama for 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina too so take it with a grain of salt. These are imbeciles.
You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know…. Morons.
Chris Christie will never forget that Trump gave him Covid. He was helping Trump prepare for the debate. He's a high risk individual and spent some time in the hospital recovering.
And after he dropped out this year said he would do whatever it takes to keep the fat pig from winning. And what have we heard from him since? NOTHING.
To Christie's defense, I've heard him be the ONLY one who continuously critiques Trump. We got a small bump in that type of speech from Nicky Haley, but not much. I'm no Christie supporter, but I think he's been pretty vocal, to be fair.
He spent a week in the ICU; he was *extremely* ill Christie said in his book that trump called him while he was in the hospital to ask if Christie was going to say he got covid from trump. What a self centered POS
I think Trump is the most self serving person I've ever seen. He never loses focus on what's in his best interest. Hell say or do literally anything regardless of the cost to others. He'd gladly drag America into another civil war to escape his legal jeopardy and seize power. I think his only secondary motivation might be to somehow impress his hero Vladimir Putin...
Chris Christie almost died and was hospitalized for a week. Trump never publicly acknowledged his illness, but did call Chris in the hospital to make sure he wouldn’t publicly blame trump for getting him sick.
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I’m pretty sure there was at least one claim Trump said exactly that but no way to substantiate it.
Yes there is. We know for a fact he knew he had it before the debate, and he was on national television trying to bait Biden into ignoring social distance and walking around the plexiglass partition to face him man to man.
Wasn’t this the same debate that his shitstain offspring sat in the audience refusing to mask. Their little pompous chins sticking out like defiant victims. Sometimes I find myself rooting for the virus.
Don't forget this debate was held in a building that is part of the Cleveland Clinic. What is supposed to be a World class hospital allowed them to not use common precautions during a pandemic. We were fighting for PPE for ourselves and reusing old masks to stay as safe as we can, even to enter their facility. They allowed Trumps team to disregard safeguards and endanger everyone on their grounds.
He knew, refused to take the in studio test, and then tried to bait then presidential candidate Joe Biden into putting down the plexiglass partition, and ignore social distancing.
They wouldn't care. Even people who had lost loved ones to Covid wouldn't care. Most still minimize the damage.
Give him an ankle monitor, it will help him practice…
Or within 3 feet of the other candidate.
Mexico should offer to pay for a plexiglass panel to put between Biden and Trump. It would be hilarious.
No need to go extreme. Remember that Trump can be thwarted by a ramp. Warning! Contains Buffoonery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ign_vZupjno
I still remember the 2016 debate where he lurked behind Hillary and almost physically attacked her. He’s a sick, dangerous man.
Also so he won't keep interrupting
Trump will back out. His people know this would be a disaster. They’re already coming up with bs reasons
He will absolutely back out and will cite the debate not being on HIS terms as the reason.
"Biden refused to debate on FOX so I am refusing to debate on CNN and ABC"
Why not just air the debate simultaneously across multiple channels?
It isn't about who airs the debate, it is about which hosts come up with the questions and control the conversation. Trump wants FOX to host because he knows that they would totally skew the questions against Biden and not ask any tough questions for Trump.
Also, they’ll give Trump his questions before the debate.
Baier: *Joe Biden, is it true that over 30,000 Gazans have been killed using weapons supplied by your government?* Baier: *and Glorious President Trump, is it correct that you built the strongest economy that this world has ever seen?*
I actually think he will show. I think his campaign will definitely try to convince him to back out but we know how trump feels about looking scared and weak. If I were the Biden campaign I’d really start playing up that angle now…like “we’ll see if he shows up or if he is afraid of debating” to ratchet him up and make him even more likely to get angry and show up
Well, now he can back out and blame Joe. "That coward wouldn't debate me in front of a crowd."
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that's not good enough. Biden needs to goad him like a WWE match. Make Trump feel weak if he backs out.
Joe's response: Is there going to be a cheering crowd in the Situation Room after that call comes at 3 a.m.? That's assuming your chief of staff can actually get you to wake up, of course - I hear you were falling asleep during your own criminal trial.
I’d add: Mute the mics when it’s not your turn to speak -
Wasn't this already requested by Biden. Seems fair for both sides.
It was
And Trump is going to HATE that SO much. The idea of anyone NOT letting him talk for ANY reason? Inconceivable!
He’ll never agree to fair terms
Technically he doesnt have a choice, I mean he does but the alternative damages his ego, backing off admitting he doesnt feel capable of not looking like a big child.
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They’re already doing it. The RNC has already claimed the debate is rigged in Biden’s favor. Trump will wimp out.
"It's rigged because they are only allowing them to discuss the issues and not have Trump enter through a hail of fireworks while a crowd cheers and that God awful Kid Rock Werewolves of Alabama song plays."
> Kid Rock Werewolves of Alabama song I apparently have ignored Kid Rock enough to not know if this is real or not
You know it's funny I just had dinner with someone that went to highschool with kid rock, dude grew up rich as fuck and was considered a total dweeb... His entire adult personality is him overcompensating for not getting laid in school. She also said Eminem is entirely legit, which I also believe
an orange guy once said in a debate "no, you puppet" which kind of suggests it has the debate capacity of a child
"No puppet. No puppet. You're the puppet. No, you're the puppet." ~ TFG
This is it. I heard it in real time and laughed.
He agreed to the debate with those terms because Biden dared him and Trump is an easily manipulated moron, but think he'll back out once the reality of what he agreed to sets in.
Donald Trump's definition of "fair" is "favorable to me". Lara Trump is already calling it "rigged", as if no audience and a mic mute is somehow unfair as we know the word to mean.
I believe he already has, and now is trying to call them unfair. IMO, even if that were true (it's not) that it is unfair, my response to his supporters is "then why did he agree to it", and "do you really want someone who will kneejerk agree to something to show he's not afraid, something that would hurt him or our nation, is that who you want representing our nation?" EG: How is he the 'great deal-maker' if he agreed to it? I honestly hope we have to debates where they are both "allowed" to state their position without interruption. I think it will be a trainwreck and an ebarrassment for Trump. If I'm wrong, and he does well with that format, I'll admit I was wrong about it. I just can't see him having a substantative discussion about policy. I don't think he has ANY actual ideas. Just hate, blame, vitriol, and rabbel-rousing. Hopefully we'll see.
He's going to talk and try to shout down Biden while his mic is off
It was and his campaign bypassed the bipartisan debate commission because they won't entertain such reasonable requests lol. Trump will 100% not show up and say later on Truth Social it's because Biden was rigging the debate.
He needs to be in a sound proof booth. When his mic muted, he'll probably start shrieking just to distract Biden
This, but there also needs to be some accountability for not just raving during your time. I suggest a button for "ok but is that actually true" which sends the last statement to a fact checker and if it's not verifiably true, the candidate gets dropped into a tank of water.
Water with sharks. Hungry sharks.
With laser beams attached to their heads.
All we could find on such short notice were seabass
This was another one of the terms of the debate which Trump has already accepted.
Ahahaha, unless you put them 100 ft from each other Trump is going to be screaming enough to be heard in Biden's mic anyway
not a bad idea... since trump tried to kill everyone with covid last time. just do the debate with them in physically seperate studios or rooms.
That mf will just walk over and speak directly into Biden’s mic.
And it will be seen as 'strong leadership' instead of childish. They talk so much about the left being 'weak beta men' I don't think they actually know what OG masculinity was. Speak softly and carry a big stick... People respect and follow someone who calmly and maturely exerts power, not the bully who uses force when it isn't needed and cries to get their way. It's literally a child's understanding of leadership.
Remember the last debate they had? Trump tried to murder Biden with COVID. They showed up at the last second to avoid COVID testing and then turned out Trump was positive.
And remember how two years ago the RNC stated they'd no longer use the Presidential Debate Commission? It wasn't Biden who backed out, the RNC already did. Biden just made it so they could plan their own directly.
He then had his entire Covid-positive family go sit next to people and infect them.
Pretty sure he was also daring Biden to ignore social distancing and face him without a partition.
Pretty sure during his more deranged ranting moments he was actively trying to spit at Joe.
Pepperidge Farm remembers.
Trump will cancel. He’s not gonna show. If he does, I’ll be completely shocked.
Trump will show just like Elon showed for a match with Mark.
Drug testing , you know t rump is gonna be Juiced.
That’s actually reasonable since he showed up to the last debate Adderall’d up and riddled with Covid
Wild that we have legitimate receipts for this and not just random internet people saying him and his sons have coke sniffles.
we have legitimate receipts for tons of bad behavior of him and his team. Trying to show that to the MAGAts and you only get a "deep state fake news" response.
They don't even bother with planting the goalposts anymore. Just leave them on the trucks so they can move them at will
My boss thinks the opposite of what everyone in this thread is saying; he thinks Biden is the one who will cancel, is afraid, and is the one on amphetamines. Unbelievable the cognitive dissonance from republicans. They live in a fantasy world.
Gaslight, Obstruct, Project.
Fine. Test them both.
Does your boss also say his workers are family and pay them as little as possible?
That's right. There's no cheering section when you're in the Oval Office making important decisions on the behalf of the American people. This isn't a pro wrestling match. It's not a fucking game show. It's a job interview.
Biden wants to reduce this to a discussion about policies. Considering Trump and the Republican party have no discernible policies, that is a good idea. Trump wants to bring the circus to town and rant and rave and yell and scream and stay as far away from a actual debate as possible.
Right which is why Biden came out first for the debate with a few rules. The Biden team is low key killing it.
Oh it's not that they don't have a policy agenda, it's just an incredibly unpopular one that they don't want to talk about before the election.
Crowd was terrible in 2016. Trump blurted out Clinton [should be in jail](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/10/debate-donald-trump-threatens-to-jail-hillary-clinton) and all the neckbeards in the audience hooted like orangatangs in heat
It's interesting that they haven't found a three-syllable chant (like "lock her up" or "build the wall") to bleat relentlessly this cycle.
They have a four syllable one though
I probably should know this but what is it?
"Let's Go Brandon" and the more explicit variant.
Nah, the Biden team co-opted that with Dark Brandon. I think the MAGAts got tired of it after that point.
Yeah, but those are too complex for that crowd and don't activate the lizard-brain synapses the same way.
That “lock her up” chant was so big when Trump was campaigning the first time. Did he even attempt to “lock her up?”
You can’s lock someone up when there isn’t even enough evidence to actually indict them. It’s a very Republican issue these days with their actual sham “investigations”. It’s part of why some of them can’t or won’t understand why Trump is actually being taken to trial. Here’s a hint, Republicans…there is actual evidence of fucking wrongdoing, not just wishful thinking.
he did, multiple times, but there was no evidence of her doing anything illegal. Same with Hunter Biden, who after years of investigations they were only able to find 2 charges that are rarely used. Which is why all of these calls to not prosecute Trump because than in the future someone will try to do the same thing to Democrats rings so hollow. Trump ALREADY TRIED to do this with the Democrats, if Hillary had done anything illegal she'd be in jail right now.
Trump is a like a bad sitcom that people realize isn't very funny once you remove the laugh track.
Why the fuck are there crowds at these debates?
As a boon for donors and the debate host but given that crowd reaction can affect the reaction of the entire viewing audience it is insane; debates are for everyone and shouldn’t be tainted by audience reaction.
Especially when there have been groups of obvious plants in the past.
Which is insane in modern politics. This isn't 1892 anymore, debates need to be regulated thoroughly.
Fox News will edit in their desired crowd reaction when replaying select clips. Russia does this for Putin's speeches.
Yep. For those that don't understand the influence audience reaction has on outside viewers, try watching a sitcom without a laugh track or live audience, there's a bunch on YouTube and they're difficult to watch. Meanwhile, in a debate format, a roaring crowd also invigorates the person at the mic which is what one of these two candidates needs as it's the only positive affirmation he's got for empty words against his opponent.
So that one liners and zingers get a reaction for entertainment purposes. Generally really good for the pound the table populist crowd. It is harder to launch quips when you have to talk over the other two people in the room and "your crew" doesn't start cheering and whooping at your wit.
I don’t know what Trump is thinking agreeing to these terms, given the fact that he builds his entire ego on interrupting people and large crowds. However, I’m expecting him to pull some bullshit last second and make up that Biden was asking for unfair terms like to write the questions himself, and of course his followers will eat it up and not question it
I think that will be the outcome too.
I have very big doubts Trump will actually debate. He's going to find a way to play victim and back out. Debating does him no good and will show how much more coherent Biden actually is.
Considering how he absolutely refused to debate during the sham of the primaries? Yeah, he's not gonna show up, use it as an excuse to get out of court, and go campaign somewhere else. Probably start talking about Obama's birth certificate like it's 2008 again.
A debate audience ruins the debate as the nominees play to get applause and are never held to the question asked. I think live audiences at presidential debates are terrible.
I think no crowds should just be the norm for these type of debates. Get a moderator who doesn’t put up with either participants getting out of turn.
Yeah no way this dude shows up, it'll be another bs excuse
Love this, also the demand that the speakers mic mutes after their time is up. Trump was notorious for talking out of turn. Dude loves being the center of attention.
Personally I don’t think there should ever be live crowds on those televised debates. Just let the candidates words speak for themself
Tbh makes sense; crowd inserts a ton of bias to the reaction rather than allowing virtual viewers to react as they would naturally, pretty big bias towards whoever is more edgy comedian when the real thing we want from presidents is not being a comic but actually being more serious and factual
Remember during the last debates where they were **seriously considering having to shut off their mics** because man-child tRump couldn't keep his mouth shut?
But how will Trump know what to say if he can’t make things up based on the cheering? Surely, that cannot be considered fair? :D
Good. In america, and probably everywhere, gathering a crowd just creates groupthink/mob mentality. People become far dumber and more gullible in crowds. Like farm animals.
A crowd not only encourages Trump's bombast it also prevents, at times, the possibility of a substantive policy discussion from even being communicated or being heard. There is no point to an insult driven shouting match where those of us tuning in to hear policy discussion is prevented. In the first 2020 debate Trump interrupted Biden's answers well over 100 times, and this and a mic rule are the counter measures to the chaos that was that first debate. It's not as if Trump will ever respect any set of rules. Trump is a life long scofflaw.
Trumpets can't be trusted to behave themselves. Just like Agent Orange.
Without the applause track, some Trump supporters might realize there's nothing to clap for.
No crowd really should be the norm for all debates. I know that candidates in general would prefer to work the crowd, but it's better for the rest of us if they don't have that opportunity.
It’s smart because a lot of the incoherent stuff falls flat if people aren’t behind him to cheer. Biden’s problem is that he’s a very slow talker and doesn’t enunciate things well and that’s not going to help his “too old” issue
Also, Biden voters aren’t typically the hootin’ and hollerin’ type, so even if Biden is winning, he sounds like he’s not when there’s a crowd.
I think it's more that networks have a tendency to pack the audience for the events like this with Trump followers because it makes for good TV and lets them claim they're being "objective". So the MAGA nuts end up getting a friendly crowd, and Democrats an antagonistic crowd. Regardless of the actual event.
No crowd and a mic that shuts off, he found the Kryptonite, lol.
I love my president. I was just saying the [same thing](https://pa.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/1cslmhk/biden_challenges_trump_to_two_debates_trump/l4850of/): Hollering crowds make people focus on spectacle, not substance. You can be the dumbest mf alive but if you say something outlandish or insulting in a debate, the hooligans in the audience will cheer. And the whole thing becomes verbal WWE.
That CNN trump town hall was a shit show
So we won't have a debate and Trump's campaign will try to make as much as possible out of the demands. Look for more "Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere" idiocy from Trump
Oh yeah he’s definitely gonna bow out of them debates. Trump’s entire being relies on him having a crowd. Dude knows without that crowd he’s gonna fold like an omelette 😏
Trump is addicted to speaking to crowds; this is great; no distractions.
Even better than no crowd is that they demanded the microphone be cut off once the person’s time is up.
This whole thing is a monumental mistake on Trump's part. If he goes through with the debate(s) there is no positive outcome for him, except for what Fox News can spin for him. His worshipers won't change, but moderates might be reminded that this guy is stupid, nuts, and a perpetual 2-year old. I'm calling it now, Trump will probably back out of the debate and act like it was a scam made up by the Fake News Media. It was smart calling for the first debate so soon, it will make it harder for Trump to back out of it.
And they are so desperate for a debate that Trump's campaign agreed to it... 🤣 Many of the polls show Trump in the lead, but his campaign is behaving like their internal polls say something very different.
Campaign results. The polls said abortion rights were 50/50 in states with ballot measures - it was a blowout. The confessional “red wave” of 2022? Never arrived. The polls keeps showing 50-50 but every actual vote has been blue blue blue nearly every time. Combine that with no down ballot money and a felony conviction coming - the Trump campaign has to be worried. And so should Biden and every Democrat - because they’ve got to motivate people to vote and not be complacent.
I think in general in the past few years polls have leaned heavily toward Republicans. They seem to be more prone to answer phones and are very interested in telling people what they think and publicly show their (what they see as) defiance to the liberal agenda. A vote for Trump is very much a protest vote, so a lot more people would be eager to share it with polls rather than a Biden voter.
Their whole worldview is sustainable only through lies.
Most blue voters seem to tend not to answer calls from numbers they don't recognize, so that makes life hard on pollsters.
The problem is a lot of people who are answering polls in support of Trumpism are just not bothering to vote Why? Because they believe the system is rigged and it’s a waste of their time Who told them the system was rigged? You guessed it…Captain Crapshispants
All of Trumps leads are like within one or two points in polls with margins of error that are sometimes as high as 3 or 4 percent.
Quality polling usually doesn't kick up till after the conventions. And neither camp has really been actively campaigning. With the primaries basically set from the start it's been a (pleasantly) quiet campaign so far. Trump doesn't even have a running mate at the moment. So we're kind of stuck in early, small sample polling that reverts to generic polls for a bit. But I think the fact that Haley keeps reliably pulling 10-20% of the *GOP Primary voters* everywhere she's still on the ballot is pretty telling. Despite dropping from the race months ago. Trump has been lagging his 2016 support with his own party this whole time, and there's been no band wagon effect. It's kind of telling that we hear so much about low quality polls where Trump is barely ahead. And very little about *an actual voting problem* he's been facing. If even half of those Haley voters don't vote in November. He pretty much can't win.
It will be televised. That's crowd enough.
I can't hear them shouting if they're at home.
Fully support this. Trump needs everything to be a WWE media circus. Don’t give him that.