Trump tantrumed and even quit a debate with Joe Biden in 2020, but now he’s even more emotionally volatile

Donald Trump has tried to taunt President Joe Biden by claiming he’s ready for a presidential debate “anytime, anywhere.” The gambit left him little choice but to immediately accept when the Biden campaign offered debate dates in June and September, and terms like not having an audience and allowing real journalists to moderate. But within mere hours it became clear that Trump and the rest of the GOP already regretted the decision.

Pretty quickly, Trump tried to change the terms of the debate, pretending that it will be held on Oct. 2 on Fox News. The Biden campaign swiftly rejected this lie, accusing Trump of “playing games,” and pointing out that Trump frequently talks big but then ends up "pulling out at the last minute, or not showing up at all."

It’s true, of course. Trump has a habit of promising that he’ll do bold things and then backing out, whether it’s his empty promises to testify at his various trials or his false claims he’ll release policy proposals in a week or two. (It’s been over a month of silence, for instance, since he promised he would release an abortion platform in “14 days.”) In 2020, still burned by his terrible first debate with Biden, Trump refused to show up at the second and held an ego-flattering rally instead.

  • NineMileTower@lemmy.world
    1·
    6 months ago

    Trump: My team will play football only if it’s a home game and I get to pick the referees. Also, your team doesn’t get to to play, only my team does. And if you don’t agree then I’m not showing up and your team is to blame.

  • OpenStars@discuss.onlineEnglish
    1·
    6 months ago

    Idea 💡: Biden tells people he will show up for a speech, with or without Trump present.

    Say that Trump will refuse to show up, bc he’s too weak and pathetic. Use those exact words.

    Trump doesn’t show = profit.

    Or if Trump does show, doing his usual falling asleep during talky talk, then profit even moar!

    Most likely Trump will try to do the identical thing in reverse, but everyone would see that Biden did it first.

  • randon31415@lemmy.world
    1·
    6 months ago

    Biden should just invite RFK to take Trump’s place if he doesn’t show up. RFK would then draw from Trump voters, splitting the anti-Biden vote.

  • eugene171@lemmy.world
    0·
    6 months ago

    I encourage everyone to take a look at Fox News’s front page when political stories like this hit.

    The debate’s basically not there, other than the occasional opinion piece about how CNN is too biased to have a fair moderator. Yesterday there was an article where some Trump stooge was saying the debate conditions were designed to make it impossible for Trunk to win.

    People who already support Trump get their media from places that will make his skipping this debate into a masterful gambit and a great victory. He won’t lose votes over this.

    • Delusional@lemmy.world
      0·
      6 months ago

      Of course he won’t lose votes over this. The guy is a deplorable menace and anyone who still supports him is a lost cause as a human being.

      I remember the past debates where trump made a fool of himself like he usually does and the next day, conservative opinion stations declared that trump won the debate for absolutely no reason instead of telling the truth.

      The conservative propaganda machine has done immense damage to this country and they’re still attacking it on a daily basis without anyone stopping them. Nothing will get better until the misinformation machine is stopped and Americans start getting factual news again.

  • StaySquared@lemmy.world
    0·
    6 months ago

    Uh… there’s a lot of people looking forward to the debate between Trump and Biden, however some of us find it unfair that RFK Jr. isn’t involved.

    • kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world
      0·
      6 months ago

      I don’t care if RFK Jr. is in the debate or not. But any left leaning person actually entertaining voting for that moron is as bad as a Trump voter. It amounts to the same thing anyway.

        • baru@lemmy.world
          0·
          6 months ago

          There’s a person for the democrats, there’s one for the republicans. Due to the voting system only two parties matter. Why invite someone else? Doesn’t make sense. Don’t get why you make that as blocking.

          • StaySquared@lemmy.world
            0·
            6 months ago

            On October 9, 2023, RFK Jr. said that he would run as an independent candidate. Technically if he’s independent, he too should be on the stage.

            Don’t get it mixed up, I’m not vouching for RFK Jr., I just believe in what’s fair. But you’re right, the U.S. seems to be a two party system, so they make the rules.