President Biden Will Debate Rapist Criminal Defendant About Inflation, Foreign Policy
The simulation remains bizarre.
President Joe Biden has agreed to debate the former insurrectionist-in-chief Donald Trump. That’s very generous of him considering that Trump tried to kill him with COVID at one of their last debates. I tend to agree with House Speaker of the Ages Nancy Pelosi, who said, “I myself would never recommend going on a stage with Donald Trump, but the president has decided that’s what he wants to do.” This is the classy lady version of going Fred Sanford on someone.
She did say that the format Biden suggested is a “good one,” but she told CNN’s Manu Raju, “I think you all should have separate town hall meetings with them all … challenge them with questions about the future and let the public make its decision.”
Biden and Trump debated twice in 2020. The first one was a shouty, rage-fest where Trump perhaps deliberately sprayed COVID on Biden. (He’d tested positive before the debate, but lied about it, and showed up too late for testing prior to the debate, so they relied on the “honor system,” always a bad move with Trump.) This was not a serious exchange of ideas, because Trump only sees a debate as another opportunity to assert dominance. When he’s not breaking basic debate rules, he’s lying about almost everything.
Trump had requested debates with Biden back in March, after he’d refused to debate his Republican primary opponents. He’d said, “The public knows who I am & what a successful Presidency I had.” See what I meant about how he always lies? Trump later posted on his jack-legged social media site, “It is important, for the Good of our Country, that Joe Biden and I Debate Issues that are so vital to America, and the American People. I am calling for Debates, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE, ANYPLACE!”
I don’t think Biden should debate someone who doesn’t understand how basic punctuation works. (My 10-year-old was appalled at the random capitalization.) However, Biden officially accepted Trump’s challenge. The president said in a trolling video, “Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020 and since then he hasn’t shown up for a debate. Now he’s acting like he wants to debate me again. Well, make my day, pal. I’ll even do it twice. So let’s pick the dates, Donald. I hear you’re free on Wednesdays.”
Trump has Wednesdays off from his current election interference trial in New York. The usual gang of Fox News idiots whined that it was so mean of Biden to poke fun at Trump’s ongoing legal issues. They’re big on one-sided respect.
My issue with Biden’s jab is that it only reminds us that Trump is still the Republican presidential nominee with a solid chance at returning to the White House despite attempting to overturn the 2020 election. The first debate is scheduled for June 27 on CNN. Yes, that’s early. It’s before the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, but despite what West Wing fan fiction writers might suggest, the parties will in fact nominate Biden and Trump. There’s no Nikki Haley or Gavin Newsom season finale twist.
The June debate will occur in Atlanta, and Georgia is one of several states whose election results Trump illegally attempted to overturn. Trump was charged in Fulton County on multiple counts of participating in a conspiracy to steal the Georgia election. It’s astonishing that the same person booked, fingerprinted, and released on bail can return to the scene of his crime and debate the very same president he tried to rob. Trump has also effectively delayed the Georgia trial until after the election, which only makes him more desperate to win this time. Let’s hope the CNN moderators bring this up.
Both campaigns agreed to no audience for the debate, which should hurt Trump who is more a WWE heel performer than a serious statesman. ABC News will host the second debate on September 10, presumably in a state where Trump isn’t facing felony charges.
Yeah, we’re really doing this again
The arrangement Biden and Trump made bypasses a decades-old tradition where the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates organizes three fall meetings. Of course, there’s a centuries-old tradition of American presidents not debating traitors. Abraham Lincoln never engaged Jefferson Davis as an equal. However, the new Confederacy is more clever. It corrupts U.S. democracy from within.
The Washington Post suggests that it’s the structure of the debates that’s unconventional and unprecedented. “Not only are the two debates earlier than normal,” the Post writes, “but they would each be hosted by single news networks, instead of the traditional practice of a third party organization producing the event for simulcast across all media platforms.”
Trump’s a confirmed rapist who attempted a coup, stole classified documents, and is currently on trial for falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments to actor Stormy Daniels so he could win the 2016 election. As Danny Rose said, “This sounds like the screenplay to Murder, Inc.”
CNN would like to open the debates to any candidate who manages at least 15 percent in four qualifying national polls and appears on the ballots in enough states to reach 270 electoral votes, but Biden will only agree to one-on-one debates with Trump. The brain worm animating Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s cadaver claimed that this was all a conspiracy between the Biden and Trump campaigns to “avoid discussion of their eight years of mutual failure.” Kennedy Jr. has reached 16 percent support in one recent poll, but he’s only on the ballot in four states. He’s not a serious candidate, just a serious threat as a potential spoiler.
Frank Fahrenkopf Jr., co-chair of the Commission on Presidential Debates, is annoyed that the campaigns cut out his organization, which he’s fairly certain serves a useful purpose.
“One of the reasons we were created is campaigns could never agree on the most important things. If they can do it, more power to them. We’d rather have them go with us,” he said. “I’d love to be a fly on the wall as they are trying to agree on the terms. That will be very interesting.”
I think the phrase “I’ve love to be a fly on the wall” dates back to before tape recording technology and, most importantly, the movie The Fly. You don’t need to subject yourself to a grotesque fate just so you can eavesdrop.
Nate Silver was also offended on behalf of the Commission of People You Previously Didn’t Know Existed: “You’re supposed to be the candidate who stands up for norms and traditions and now you’re ducking this tradition?” Biden has stood up for the norms and traditions of no violent insurrections and not abandoning U.S. allies. I didn’t know debate rules from the 1980s were what kept democracy standing.
“So Biden wants 2 debates instead of the traditional 3 and also wants them much earlier, which makes them less impactful?” Silver wrote. “It’s consistent with his strategic incentives, which are that he can’t be seen as ducking debates but he’s not particularly confident he’ll win.”
That’s quite the Gish gallop. Silver has no evidence that Biden thinks he can’t win a debate against Trump. People who watched the 2020 debates overwhelmingly believed Biden beat Trump. Trump is the one who’s actively ducked debates, even against primary opponents who would’ve treated him with kid gloves. Silver states as fact that holding the debates earlier would make them less impactful. The media has spent the past year complaining about the “been there, done that” nature of a Biden/Trump rematch. Neither candidate needs to introduce themselves to the public at their party’s convention before kicking off the general election campaign. They both have documented records as president. There’s no sense in waiting, and these days any remaining undecided voters in September and October probably suffer from the same ailment as Drew Barrymore in 50 First Dates.
“If you’re confident you’ll win the debates, you’d ask for 2 early debates *in addition* to the 3 late ones,” Silver went on. “At least as a bargaining position.”
Yes, why not have them debate every day about the same positions we know they have for the rest of the year? Not even their own campaign staff will watch the final ones.
Besides, as Biden Campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon points out, “The Commission’s schedule has debates that begin after the American people have a chance to cast their vote early, and doesn’t conclude until after tens of millions of Americans will have already voted.”
Trump, a scumbag incapable of basic civility, accepted the debate terms while crassly insulting Biden. Apparently, all the pearl clutchers at Fox News upset over Biden’s tiny dig missed Trump’s deranged post on social media.
“Crooked Joe Biden is the WORST debater I have ever faced — He can’t put two sentences together!” Trump would proceed to demonstrate how well he assembles more than two sentences, without regard for punctuation or coherence. “Crooked is also the WORST President in the history of the United States, by far. It’s time for a debate so that he can explain to the American People his highly destructive Open Border Policy, new and ridiculous EV Mandates, the allowance of Crushing Inflation, High Taxes, and his really WEAK Foreign Policy, which is allowing the World to ‘Catch on Fire.’”
In fairness, Trump’s post was a pleasant change from his usual witness intimidation and jury tampering.
“I am Ready and Willing to Debate Crooked Joe at the two proposed times,” he wrote. “I would strongly recommend more than two debates and, for excitement purposes, a very large venue, although Biden is supposedly afraid of crowds — That’s only because he doesn’t get them. Just tell me when, I’ll be there. ‘Let’s get ready to Rumble!!!’”
I still contend that debating Trump is a waste of Biden’s time. If he wants to convince voters he’s still fit to serve for another four years, he’s better off appearing on Dancing with the Stars.
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Well it is Biden having an opportunity to look good in front of the camera, and President Klan Robe is going to act like a rhesus monkey on bath salts anyway. So Joe might as well rock out and do it. The "I hear you're free on Wednesdays" line was hilarious and brutal though.
These debates are particularly useless though because there's no actual policies from the Republican death cult, and it's all about slinging zingers. We all know President Klan Robe is going to say something way out of line and that's why a number of people are jonesing for Biden to do this.
And uuuuugh Nate Silver is such a hack. So tired of these clout-chasing navelgazers.
So many great points. It's exhausting arguing with all these individuals and organizations that will say anything in bad faith to move their agendas.
The one that ticks me off the most is probably Silver saying Biden represents the norms. It's true but he is applying it deceptively. I remember when I use to be excited for Nate's analysis...