Is there going to be one or more Clinton-Trump debates?

[ThelmaLou]

Right on schedule.

Donald Trump says the media is ‘gaming the system’ ahead of debates

Donald Trump on Sunday accused the news media of “gaming the system” ahead of the presidential debates, saying the criticism that followed Matt Lauer’s performance as moderator of a candidate forum this month is designed to set the Republican nominee up for harsher scrutiny.

Trump’s theory is that journalists are trying to use negative reviews of Lauer to put pressure on the debate moderators, Lester Holt, Martha Raddatz, Anderson Cooper and Chris Wallace. They will be so afraid of getting Lauer-style criticism from their peers, according to Trump, that they will attack the business mogul.

“They hammered Lauer, but Matt did a fine job,” Trump said on Fox News Channel’s “Media Buzz.” “Matt was very tough on me. So what happens is by — it’s called gaming the system, like a great basketball coach like Bobby Knight, who was one of the greats. He would hit the referee and keep hitting him, and then at the end he was hoping for that favorable call. Well, they’re hitting Matt Lauer, and that’s sort of indicative of what they’re — they’re trying to game the system. They want — and this, I think, is terrible — they want the hosts to go after Trump. And that’s what they’re doing by gaming the system.”

Trump appears to be doing the same thing but with the opposite goal — trying to soften up the moderators by making them fear accusations of bias. He said Thursday in an interview with The Washington Post that Cooper will be “very biased” and should not be a moderator, indicating that Trump might cry foul if he does not like the questions he is asked.

[RickJay]

He’s been saying that for months. He always will. He looks better if he’s fighting a “rigged” system.

[asahi]

@RickJay

I’ll give you favourable odds and bet against those things.

He will be at all the debates. He’ll be early. To do otherwise would devastate him in the polls but, most importantly, would be him turning down free PR, which Trump will absolutely not do.

Let’s say he wins the first two debates, and let’s say he starts pulling away in some key swing states. I think there’s a better than average chance he finds a reason to skip out on the 3rd debate. Why take the chance? He would have already proven himself as a good debater. Hillary would have been sunk, and she’s not the kind of candidate who’s going to come back if she starts falling behind.

If Hillary’s ahead in the polls, sure, Trump tries to score a hail Mary and goes for a third debate. If they’re tied, I’m guessing he goes after her. But if he’s leading, he probably plays it safe.

[asahi]

@RickJay

He’s been saying that for months. He always will. He looks better if he’s fighting a “rigged” system.

Yeah, he wants to lower expectations and score a David v. Goliath victory by beating a seasoned debater.

[RickJay]

@asahi

Let’s say he wins the first two debates, and let’s say he starts pulling away in some key swing states. I think there’s a better than average chance he finds a reason to skip out on the 3rd debate. Why take the chance?

Because he looks like a huge chicken. It doesn’t matter what he “proves” in Debate One and Two. If Clinton is there ready to roll and Trump is not, he looks like he’s ducking a confrontation. There is no upside, and if he does well in the first two, it’s not in his nature to believe he’d do poorly in the third.

Ducking Debate Three could undo every gain he makes in Debates One and Two. It would be worse optics than the Khan fiasco. Ducking a scheduled debate *nine days or less prior to the debate *would look absolutely dreadful. I don’t see how a single convinceable voter doesn’t hold that against Trump - obviously his hard core white nationalist supporters will rationalize it but they alone can’t win him the election.

[Ann_Hedonia]

Although I couldn’t print out my answers for posterity, I had a lot of fun filling out the GOP debate prep survey

https://www.gop.com/debate-prep-survey/

• I checked off OTHER for everything and made some suggestions that would make for an entertaining debate if they were followed.

I suggested that instead of walking, he should ride Chris Christie to the podium, horseback style.

I suggested that he put Hillary in a headlock until she admitted she was a liar.

I suggested that he throw coal dust on Hillary to prove a point

I said he should tell her that she had a fat ass.

And I recommended lots of penis waving.

It was silly but fun.

[drewder]

I don’t know why you think that trump would lose the debate? Clinton has shown that anytime she does a press conference or for that matter is heard talking her numbers go down. It’s why she so infrequently does such things as well as why the DNC debates were largely held on Saturday nights on holiday weekends.