I searched and didn’t find a thread like this so here goes.
I am thinking that it will be too far for him, and his party to refuse. Wouldn’t the RNC be just like over?
How will the electorate react?
I think the debate would be one of the most critical events of the last 4 years. troinp has not been accountable for his words for years now. I believe this is responsible for the demoralization of the country, and slipping into post, un and non truth.
Of course Trump will debate. It would be disastrous for the President to refuse to debate, and in any event I’m sure that Trump’s ego is telling him that he’ll wipe the floor with the other person.
Trump can’t wait to debate. He’s an entertainer and lives for the camera.
Your ideas are out of date. You probably think it’d be disastrous for a president to just stop holding regular press conferences, but the person who promised to be the most transparent president, maybe in the history of presidents, essentially did just that and it didn’t matter. Trump has realized that he can just blather to his base through Twitter or whatever, and absolutely nobody is going to hold it against him if he doesn’t play the debate game.
That’s not to say you’re wrong – despite sounding like an absolute moron at every single debate he participated in, Fox News still consistently called him a winner and he probably loved every minute of it. So he very well may agree to debates. I’m just saying, he doesn’t have to.
I think a more interesting question might be what novel debate strategies the Democratic nominee might adopt to combat Trump’s specific brand of “No puppet, no puppet, you’re the puppet” debate style. Personally, I wanted Clinton to try making fart sounds every time Trump tried to speak. Phbtbtbtbtb. Phbtbtbtbt. Phhbtbtbtbtbtbtbtbbtbbtbtbtbtbtbtbtb. I think that would have been more effective than trying to give intelligent answers to questions that Trump was just inevitably going to wipe his ass with.
This is one of those issues that I have to put down to people not really paying attention to the political situation for the past 4 years. I think there are an awful lot of people who witnessed what happened in 2016, they were disgusted by it, and so they just kind of blocked out everything else that happened afterwards, perhaps occasionally seeing some absurd Trump outburst on social media and reading the occasional thinkpiece on the Washington Post or the Atlantic, and otherwise just motoring along through life doing their best to shut out the poisonous political climate. And, hell, it’s a completely understandable reaction.
But that’s the only justification that I can come up with for anyone claiming that Trump would miss a chance to debate the Democratic challenger. I simply don’t understand how someone who has actually been following politics astutely, can say such a thing.
Of course, everyone said Trump would be handily defeated by Clinton, after the same people said that he’d never get the nomination because the RNC would freeze him out, after they said that he’d never even run to begin with because he’d have to disclose his finances.
I just don’t see a version of Trump who wouldn’t want to go in and “win” against them, beating them down. It doesn’t even matter if most people think he won–his followers will, and that’ll be the adoration he wants.
Not debating would require savvy and self-control, which Trump doesn’t have.
Yeah, this. He was bad enough when debating Clinton the last time, but now he’s got almost 4 years of proof that none of his supporters will object to name calling, lying, rumor mongering, and all that other crap. Why wouldn’t he want a nationally televised opportunity to say anything he wants, where they’re not allowed to just cut him off?
It’ll be the debate version of this scene from Idiocracy:
It is specifically because I have been paying attention that I think there’s a good chance there wouldn’t be a debate, at least not anything like a debate as we commonly understand one. I think it’s a very strange thing to cite recent events as supporting the idea that Trump would follow any standard procedures for any media-related event.
Trump the candidate couldn’t just declare that the debates had to follow certain rules, or that certain networks couldn’t air them, or certain people couldn’t moderate them, or that his opponents not be allowed to say certain things or answer certain things or talk for as long as him. When he wasn’t president he couldn’t come out and say that the reason the cameras worked a certain way, or the lights, or particular questions, were because enemies of the people were responsible. If he walked out of those debates, he didn’t get to return to THE WHITE HOUSE and do whatever he wanted with state apparatus.
Not only can he say that shit now, he says it every day. There is no chance at all that a President Trump would allow anybody else to set the rules for any aspect of the debate. He fills rooms with people who have been told to stand up and cheer for him. He doesn’t talk to media, except very specific media, under very specific circumstances. That’s not a debate.
Trump’s MO as president hasn’t even been this elaborate. I think it’s entirely possible he just skips the debate, cites no reason at all or some rambling about the deep state, and then leaves it to other Republicans to make up an excuse for why he had to skip the debate because the moderators were going to ask unfair questions or some other ridiculousness.
I think it remains to be seen in the 2020 campaign if we’ll see candidate Trump (from 2016) who put effort into antagonizing the media and building his notoriety in politics, or President Trump who knows his cultists don’t need to be riled up and seems to let people around him shelter him from having to face a hostile environment directly.
I posted this theory in another thread as only a semi-joke. I’m not convinced that he will skip the debates, but the chance of it is at least an order of magnitude higher than any other candidate in the recent history.
IMO there is no chance whatever that Trump will pass up debating his opponent at least twice, especially if that opponent is Crazy Bernie (Trump’s word choice). I’m equally certain that Trump and/or his minions will make every attempt to manipulate the debate format to their percieved advantage; if the organizers don’t play ball, Trump can always fall back on the old unfair/disgraceful/fake news/enemy of the people whining bullshit.
It’s entirely possible. It’s also possible he’ll drop dead before the debates and I’d put the odds of both at about even. Trump loves cameras and is not one to shy away from confrontation. He calls on Jim Acosta for Pete’s sake. I think you believe he’s “afraid” of getting into verbal knife fights more than he actually is.
I believe he was “afraid” Biden was the most electable candidate. I don’t believe he is “afraid” to debate him however. I don’t think he’s afraid of debating Bernie either.
I hope he doesn’t do them. Debates are just pointless, bullshit political theatre. Pretty much everyone will have decided how they’ll vote within five minutes of the Democratic Primary winner being announced anyway. Debates serve no real purpose.
I think he will do only 2 debates, probably moderated by Fox and Chuck Todd. His answers will be absolute nonsense and lies, but he will mock and bully his opponent and his base will declare it brilliant and the most decisive debate victory of all time.
The idiocracy court room scene exactly, basically.
