Five days ago, President Joe Biden sent an unexpected shockwave through the political world by asking President Donald Trump to participate in several upcoming debates. The former president quickly accepted, and presumptive candidates from both major parties began preparing for the next stage of the process.
But the Republican strategy deserves closer scrutiny — because it's very strange at first glance.
Part of the problem with President Trump's strategy is that he is lowering expectations for Biden's performance, which is the opposite of what he should be doing. But another part of the problem is that the former president and his supporters continue to take curious photos at the events themselves.
Just hours after Team Trump agreed to dates for the upcoming debate, Republican National Committee Co-Chair Lara Trump told Fox News that the June debate was “heavily rigged in favor of Joe Biden.” “It's rare,” he said.
Two days later, the former president himself slammed CNN (the network that was scheduled to host the first debate), specifically targeting Jake Tapper. Tapper will be one of the moderators of the upcoming event.
Perhaps most notably, Trump also appeared to set new conditions for participating in the June debate. The Daily Beast pointed out that:
Former President Donald Trump called on Joe Biden four years ago to take a drug test before their first debate in September, but on Friday he decided to make the same request, which Biden again refused. will do. At a campaign rally in Minnesota…the indicted former president recycled his old line of attack against the current president ahead of next month's CNN debate.
“I just want to debate this guy, and by the way, I'm going to demand a drug test. I really am,” Trump said. He told supporters in St. Paul..
At the same event, the former president once again falsely accused the sitting president of taking performance-enhancing drugs during his 2024 State of the Union address, which was and remains ridiculous on its face.
Assortment of playing cards agent Yet sycophants are peddling the same thing.
At first glance, one might be tempted to think that Republicans, who reflexively accepted Biden's proposal without much thought or planning, might be pulling out of the originally scheduled debate. After all, between Lara Trump's “dishonest” comments, the former president's willingness to slam sponsored news networks and debate hosts, and the candidate's “I just want to debate this person, but…” rhetoric; And it's easy to understand that: My impression is that President Trump is looking for a way out.
That may be true, but I suspect there is something else going on here.
One of President Trump's main tools is to preemptively try to establish parameters in hopes of explaining failures. We see it all the time in his criminal charges. Republicans argue that prosecutors are criminals, judges are corrupt, the system is broken and the jurisdiction cannot provide him with a fair trial.
If he is convicted, he will say: I was right all along. ” If acquitted, he would say, “My success was even more impressive considering I stood up against a corrupt system.”
The same seems to apply here. If Biden wins the debate, Trump will tell his supporters, “I've always said the debates were rigged, the moderators were unfair, and my opponent is a drug addict. I would like to convey the message, But if the former president does well, he will declare, “I won the debate, even though the process was rigged and Biden had an unfair pharmacological advantage.”
In other words, Trump is probably not trying to get out of the debate, but rather trying not to lose the debate.
