Why fearful Trump has agreed to debate Kamala Harris

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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.

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.”