Now who’s afraid to debate?

Today a lightning-fast series of events put paid to the notion that Donald Trump is afraid to debate Kamala Harris. Not only did he agree to debate her, but now she refuses to debate him! And the country knows the real reason for that: in one night Trump made Joe Biden unelectable. His only mistake was in knocking Joe Biden out too soon, leaving Barack Obama time to switch candidates. Democrats could not do the same thing twice, especially after Labor Day, and they know it.

Debate arrangements and debacles over the summer

Why Joe Biden agreed to debate Donald Trump to begin with, will likely forever remain a mystery. Trump said he would gladly debate Biden “any time, any place!” Biden took him up on it – with a ridiculous set of conditions. Chief among these was that the two would have no audience, and the moderator would have to ensure that Trump remained silent, or at least inaudible, until bidden to speak.

Trump agreed to both conditions, and conducted himself with admirable – even remarkable – restraint. Joe Biden, as anyone could have predicted, made a fool of himself. He trailed off, said the wrong things, and in general did everything but collapse on the stage.

After that, Biden kept insisting that he would stay in the race. Half the pundits suggested no one would dare displace him, or even try. But they underestimated Barack Obama, and forgot that Obama and Biden actually hate each other. Obama – and nobody disputes this anymore – threatened Biden with a full Amendment XXV Section 4 drill. He even said Kamala Harris was ready to start gathering signatures on a Vice-Presidential Declaration of Presidential Inability. Faced with that, Biden acquiesced – but then gave Obama something he didn’t bargain for. He endorsed Kamala Harris on the same night he dropped out of the race – indeed half an hour later.

Trump would not keep an obsolete arrangement

The problem was that Biden had arranged two debates with Trump, not just one. But when Biden dropped out, Trump refused to honor the second debate date. He had made arrangements with an official Democratic candidate, and would not let another candidate claim the date without first following some procedure other than a simple handshake (or equivalent) to lay a legitimate claim to the nomination.

In reply, the Harris campaign and most of their legacy media allies accused Trump of chickening out – of reneging. But The New York Times actually reported that Trump had no legitimate deal to renege on. When Biden dropped out, that deal was off. Whoever ran in Biden’s place, must negotiate a new deal.

Naturally the other legacy media accused the Times of slanting the news in Trump’s favor. (Never mind the many times they slanted the news for his devilment.)

In fact, during Republican National Convention week, Harris (as Vice-Presidential nominee-presumptive) was talking about Vice-Presidential debates. The Trump campaign made a statement that anticipated Trump’s post-Biden-drop-out statement.

We don’t know who the Democrat nominee for Vice President is going to be, so we can’t lock in a date before their convention. To do so would be unfair to Gavin Newsom, JB Pritzker, Gretchen Whitmer, or whoever Kamala Harris picks as her running mate. Brian Hughes, Trump Campaign Senior Adviser

Then, of course, Biden dropped out. After some initial confusion, the Trump campaign definitely preferred to wait for Harris to complete some semblance of a procedure. Yesterday, her campaign did. The “virtual voting” process will continue until Monday evening, but the outcome is now fore-ordained.

Fox News proposes a debate

Late Friday evening, according to The Gateway Pundit,Trump dropped this “Truth” about arrangements he had made with Fox:

I have agreed with FoxNews to debate Kamala Harris on Wednesday, September 4th. The Debate was previously scheduled against Sleepy Joe Biden on ABC but has been terminated in that Biden will no longer be a participant, and I am in litigation against ABC Network and George Slopadopoulos, thereby creating a conflict of interest.

The FoxNews Debate will be held in the Great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, at a site in an area to be determined. The Moderators of the Debate will be Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, and the Rules will be similar to the Rules of my Debate with Sleepy Joe, who has been treated horribly by his Party – BUT WITH A FULL ARENA AUDIENCE!

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/112896042195717073

Which party, as between Trump and Fox, chose Pennsylvania for this battleground, is not clear. But Pennsylvania became a personal battleground for Trump when someone tried to kill him in that State.

Before noon today, Jim Hoft at TGP reported that the Harris campaign definitely refused. They are insisting on the original September 10 ABC-TV debate date. Reporter Yamiche Alcindor of NBC News released this statement:

This afternoon, again according to TGP, Trump had this to say:

Kamala Harris doesn’t have the mental capacity to do a REAL Debate against me, scheduled for September 4th in Pennsylvania. She’s afraid because there is no way she can justify her corrupt and open borders policy, the environmental destruction of our country, the Afghanistan embarrassment, runaway inflation, terrible economy, high interest rates and taxes, and her years-long fight against saying ‘Merry Christmas.’ I’ll see her on September 4th or I won’t see her at all. She is acknowledged as the Worst Vice President in History, which complements the Worst President, Crooked Joe Biden. Together these two low-IQ individuals have destroyed our country, but we will MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/112899344194558383

Trump’s statement about Harris’ “fight against saying ‘Merry Christmas’” refers to her recent statement that the American people are wrong to say “Merry Christmas” as long as they exclude any migrants, on any grounds.

Separately, Trump had some dynamite material – video of Kamala Harris lapsing into word salad as she and President Biden greeted some returned hostages. In reply, Trump said this:

Does anyone notice that Kamala Harris doesn’t do Interviews? That’s because she’s really DUMB! She’s unable to speak properly without a Teleprompter. She has an extremely Low IQ, and our Country does not need someone who is unable to put two sentences together. She can’t, and besides, we just got finished with that — His name is Sleepy Joe Biden!

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/112899423486841729

In this Truth, Trump “nailed” the real reason Kamala Harris does not want to debate Trump on Fox News Network and in front of thousands of people (in Pennsylvania, too!). She is no more capable of speaking coherently than was Biden. And he had the excuse of suffering from senile dementia; she does not.

Summary

These events show that the Harris campaign is plenty worried about a debate in a setting they do not control. This goes to the real reason Biden named Harris as his running mate. It was not merely to “check off” various “diversity, equity and inclusion” boxes. If that’s all he wanted, he could have selected Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas). Of course he couldn’t have known she would die this year, but then he’d have the bonuses of:

1. Presiding over a State funeral with even greater significance than the one she actually had,
2. Nominating a Vice-President to take her place, and:
3. Making another Vice-Presidential running-made selection even more fraught than Harris’ will be.

But! Sheila Jackson Lee would have overshadowed him – and that he would not have tolerated. No, Biden picked Harris because she could never overshadow him. Realizing that, she was the quintessential team player; that is the only reason she lasted in that job.

Take it to the office of the Vice-President. He has nothing to do; it will keep him awake. President Theodore Roosevelt, handing a broken White House light fixture to an aide.

Now she has to defend her performance in office – on a public debate stage. And if she does it on September 4, and messes up as Biden did, it will be too late to replace her on the ticket. The Democrats might get around the rules – say, by “nominating” Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-Pa.) to take her place. But he will never be able to gather the momentum Harris allegedly has. If that’s not part of Trump’s calculation, it should be.