David Pakman

Host of The David Pakman Show

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Opinion

Is Trump getting ready to bail on first presidential debate?

Jun 17

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David Pakman

Host of The David Pakman Show

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On June 27, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will meet face-to-face in a presidential debate featuring muted microphones, no props and no live audience. The debate is unusual in several other ways: It is being held much earlier in the election cycle than usual and is hosted by CNN instead of the Commission on Presidential Debates.

Watch the video above as Straight Arrow News contributor David Pakman discusses rumors that Donald Trump may be planning to skip the first debate.


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Sean Hannity recently said on his program that he’s hearing from people who think maybe Donald Trump shouldn’t go to the first debate at all, and wait until he’s officially the nominee and then do the debate later in the year.

If I had to guess about what’s going on here, it’s two things: Number one, Hannity is not going to mention something like this of his own volition unless Trump or someone close to Trump gives him the green light to go ahead and start floating the idea that maybe Trump shouldn’t go, and maybe this isn’t worth his time —  because Hannity is not going to introduce that unless it’s something that they are actually thinking about and talking about.

And then number two, and maybe just as importantly, if you’ve seen some of Donald Trump’s recent performances at rallies, and the 60, 90, 120 seconds, or even longer rants that make no sense, you would be well to start wondering, is this a guy who can actually handle — especially in the evening hours, as mental health professionals I’ve interviewed have said, he seems to do worse in the evening — can he really handle a debate with Joe Biden without going off on these rants that make no sense?

At his recent event in Las Vegas, Trump ranted about electric vehicles, sharks, having an uncle that went to MIT, and it was so bizarre and so confusing that the crowd all behind him was stunned into silence, and unsure how to react.

We are starting to hear rumblings that Donald Trump may be laying the groundwork to bail on the June 27 debate against President Joe Biden. Sean Hannity recently said on his program that he’s hearing from people who think maybe Donald Trump shouldn’t go to the first debate at all, and wait until he’s officially the nominee and then do the debate later in the year. If I had to guess, about what’s going on here, it’s two things. Number one, Hannity is not going to mention something like this of his own volition. Unless Trump or someone close to Trump gives him the green light to go ahead and start floating the idea that maybe Trump shouldn’t go. And maybe this isn’t worth his time, because I Hannity is not going to introduce that unless it’s something that they are actually thinking about and talking about. And then number two, and maybe just as importantly, if you’ve seen some of Donald Trump’s recent performances at rallies, and the 6090 120 seconds, or even longer rants that make no sense, you would be well to start wondering, is this a guy who can actually handle especially in the evening hours as mental health professionals I’ve interviewed have said, he seems to do worse in the evening. Can he really handle a debate with Joe Biden? Without going off on these rants that make no sense at his recent event in Las Vegas, Trump ranted about electric vehicles, sharks, having an uncle that went to MIT, and it was so bizarre and so confusing that the crowd all behind him was stunned into silence, and unsure how to react. So I am making no diagnosis whatsoever here. We’ve interviewed mental health professionals and urology, Alzheimer’s, dementia professionals on the program, their opinion, which is what I go by since and I am not a medical expert, their opinion has been Biden is experiencing appropriate age related slowing down where he sometimes simply will forget something he’ll forget a name or whatever the case may be. But Trump is doing something Biden doesn’t, which is he won’t realize he’s saying things that make no sense. The rant in Vegas is an example. Trump getting the current president wrong, who he ran against wrong, all sorts of different things, and he just steamrolls through it and keeps going. So then we get to the next question. If Trump were to bail on the first debate on June 27, would there be any electoral consequence would it hurt him in the polls? On the one hand, Trump’s support has been steady through indictment through the trial starting through conviction. And so one side would say, I don’t know that anything’s going to make a difference as far as Trump and his polling, on the other hand, as people start to pay more attention, political strategist, Rachel Bidda coffer said that as we get closer and closer to Labor Day, which is early September, that is really the peak of when people start paying attention to a presidential election, as we get closer and closer. The repercussions for opting out of what are typically considered you participate in this, the repercussions may get bigger and get more significant, and so maybe Hannity’s idea that Trump skips the June debate, but goes to the one in September, maybe there’s something smart about that. Maybe there will be unpredictable consequences. Now one other thing here. I continue to hear from folks who say Biden’s either not going to make it or he’s going to bail on the June 27 debate, someone around him is going to realize he can’t do this. He simply can’t his brain is not working. They have set the bar that low for years now. They set the bar that low and 2020. For the primary debate against Bernie for the 2020 general election debates against Trump, for every single one of Biden State of the Union addresses breathlessly and more black breathlessly saying he’s going to face the wrong way. He won’t know what time it is he won’t know how to read. And the bar is always set. So low and Biden just does unremarkably fine, that they may end up hurting themselves with these low expectations where people will say, I don’t know Biden did fine. And Trump talked about a shark and an electric vehicle and his uncle at MIT. I’m swinging towards Biden. So there is certainly a risk here to setting the expectations so low. My belief right now is they will debate they will debate the debate will happen. Although we won’t necessarily learn too much, thanks to the format and that’s a completely different story. So I want to hear from you about a couple of things. What do you expect to happen? Will you be watching is there even hypothetically anything that could happen in these debates that would change your mind? Let me know

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