Monday, May 20, 2024

Why Trump Eagerly Accepted Unfair Debate Rules

  The American Spectator | USA News and Politics

He just wants to get Biden on stage so tens of millions of voters can get an unfiltered look at the man.

"Any experienced negotiator knows that, if his opening offer is immediately accepted, he has given away too much."

"Consequently, it must have rattled President Biden’s handlers when former President Trump instantly agreed to their debate proposal, despite its extravagant demands concerning format and rules. The Biden team very likely expected Trump to balk at some of those preconditions, which would have enabled them to portray his frequently repeated offer to debate “anytime, anywhere” as an empty bluff. Instead, he gleefully exclaimed, “Let’s get ready to rumble.” Moreover, he proposed additional encounters beyond those offered by the Biden campaign.

"Tellingly, Biden’s people have declined to allow their candidate to face Trump in any other venue or on any other date than they initially proposed — CNN on June 27 and ABC on September 10. Trump has accepted two other debates, including one jointly hosted by NBC News and Telemundo. Considering Biden’s sagging support among Latino voters, his team should leap at the chance to communicate with this crucial voter bloc. Yet Biden’s campaign chair characterized Trump’s interest in this debate as a dirty trick: “No more games. No more chaos. No more debate about debates.” This suggests that the Biden campaign believes it has more to lose than to gain from participating in further debates.

"And they are probably right. This is why Trump isn’t worried about debate rules other than the one requiring his opponent to show up. It will not have been lost on the former president that Biden’s debate challenge was issued in a 14-second video riddled with jump cuts. That such a short video required so much editing doesn’t bode well for Biden’s ability to remain coherent for two hours on live television. Another reason the Biden campaign refuses to consider additional debates may well be that they are in denial about how badly they are really doing in the polls. The Wall Street Journal’s Edward Lawrence asked Democratic pollster and former Clinton advisor Doug Schoen about it and his answer was unambiguous:     

The rest of this article is behind a paywall, but you get the import of it...

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