David Pakman Host of The David Pakman Show
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Opinion

Why fearful Trump has agreed to debate Kamala Harris

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David Pakman Host of The David Pakman Show
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After initially suggesting he might back out of the Sept. 10 debate hosted on ABC, former President Donald Trump has now accepted the invitation to debate Vice President Kamala Harris. The debate, which will take place at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, will be Trump’s second of the campaign, but his first against the relatively new Democratic presidential nominee. While the debate rules are still being finalized, it is likely that microphones will be muted while opponents speak.

In the video above, Straight Arrow News contributor David Pakman argues that Trump realized he would likely cause more harm by not showing up than by debating Harris.


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Following is an excerpt from the above video:

Practically speaking, if Trump doesn’t show up this time, what would it do? With the primary, Trump, straight up, didn’t debate, didn’t matter. He had control in the lion’s share of the support from the Republican primary voters. He easily won the primary, even though it was by smaller and smaller margins in the later primaries, because Nikki Haley was picking up support, he didn’t need to debate, and the proof is in the fact that he still won the primary easily.

Now, I believe that the net effect of Trump not debating would probably be negative. I interviewed former Trump White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci recently, and Anthony Scaramucci said that while he expects Trump to debate because he’s desperate for attention, that if Trump didn’t debate, even in front of some of his core audience, he would — and the phrase Anthony used was — “self-emasculate.”

I think that there are lots of Trump cultists who are such hardcore believers that if Trump doesn’t debate, they will stick with him and they will say: “No, he was right not to debate, ABC is biased, it’s all unfair, it was setting up Kamala Harris to look better. He was right not to debate.”

Will Donald Trump actually debate Kamala Harris? That’s my question for you today. Now, there’s a bunch of interesting things to consider here. On a personal level, I want to see this debate. Call me selfish, say it’s about have a personal interest to live stream the debate to what will certainly be a huge audience. Putting all that aside, I want to see this debate to see how different the dynamic is when it’s Kamala Harris up there, a notably younger, more energetic, more intelligent, better on the issues candidate than Donald Trump, and certainly much more ready to go than Joe Biden was. So I want to see it right. Let’s put aside I want to see this debate, and that’s part of my motivator for wanting it to happen. There’s a real question as to why Trump really wouldn’t debate. In other words, Trump loves publicity. Oh, ABC is unfair to me. Trump loves publicity, and Trump’s bias is to any publicity is good publicity. So for Trump to be considering not debating, he must, to some degree, fear that this debate could be a very bad thing for him as far as the election goes furthering this belief is that he knows debates that go well can be really good for him, because look back to June 27 the June 27 debate, despite the fact that Trump lied his way through it right? If it weren’t for Joe Biden failing to have a good debate performance, more people would have noticed the disastrous, lie riddled, glitch filled, Trump debate performance. But Trump knows debates can be beneficial, because the June 27 debate was so bad for Biden and so good for Trump that it led to the polling shifting towards Trump, and Biden saying, I’m actually getting out of this race. So Trump knows the upside is so big that you can take a commanding lead of the election and knock out your opponent if it goes well. So for doubly so, if Trump is now considering at I don’t know that I’m going to do it. It’s because, to some degree, he must suspect. He must know when he sees Kamala Harris, when he sees the video of Kamala Harris questioning Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearings to the Supreme Court when she was in the Senate, when he sees the energy behind her, he must suspect to some degree, that this could really backfire and be a very bad thing for him. What this gets us to is in practice, if Trump doesn’t show up this time, what would it do with the primary? Trump, straight up, didn’t debate. Didn’t matter. He had control in the lion’s share of the support from the Republican primary voters. He easily won the primary, even though it was by smaller and smaller margins in the later primaries, because Nikki Haley was picking up support, he didn’t need to debate, and the proof is in the fact that he still won the primary easily. Now I believe that the net effect of Trump not debating would probably be negative. I interviewed former Trump White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci recently, and Anthony Scaramucci said that while he expects Trump to debate because he’s desperate for attention, that if Trump didn’t debate, even in front of his some of his core audience, he would, and the phrase Anthony used was self emasculate. I think that there are lots of Trump cultists who are such hardcore believers that if Trump doesn’t debate, they will stick with him and they will say, No, he was right not to debate a, b, c is biased. It’s all unfair. It was setting up Kamala Harris to look better. He was right not to debate. But we know from polling that there is a growing skepticism, certainly from independents who are now supporting Kamala Harris by plus nine over Trump, which is the margin that Biden had in 2020 over Trump were already there risk of getting completely blown out among independents of this continues for Trump. There is a growing slice of Republicans skeptical of Trump, but they really don’t like Kamala Harris. Who are going to see Trump make the decision not to debate, if that’s the decision he makes, and they will say now, now this, he’s just afraid, I can’t vote for a guy who is this afraid of just showing up and debating Kamala Harris? They may not switch to Kamala Harris, this group of voters, but they very well may stay home. So I don’t know to what degree Trump is seriously considering not showing up, but my calculation, based on everything I’m seeing, reading and all of the data that we have. Is that while there are many folks who would not care if Donald Trump were to stay home and not debate, there are plenty that would and it’s too big a risk for Trump to take. Let me know what you think I.

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