Following President Joe Biden’s historic announcement over the weekend that he is dropping out of the 2024 presidential race (and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris to take his place), former president and Republican nominee Donald Trump is demanding changes to the next scheduled debate.
Political pundits believe Trump wants changes to the debate because he is threatened by the prospect of facing a younger, more capable candidate.
“Now that Joe has, not surprisingly, has quit the race, I think the Debate, with whomever the Radical Left Democrats choose, should be held on Fox News, rather than very biased ABC,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Sunday.
There isn’t any legitimate reason to change the debate venue based on recent events. Up until Biden’s departure from the race, Trump was content with holding the debate on a network television station — but now that Harris will likely be his opponent, Trump suddenly wants the debate to air on a less-viewed cable network.
Trump also expressed anger on social media over having to “spend time and money” on campaigning against Biden and having to “start all over again” now that the president isn’t running. He then bizarrely suggested that the Republican Party should be “reimbursed” due to Biden dropping out, and claimed that Biden and Harris were a “threat to democracy” because Biden exiting the race supposedly ignores the will of Democratic voters in the primaries.
Trump’s own undemocratic actions, meanwhile, include instigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, attempting to usurp the Electoral College using a scheme involving fake electors to disrupt the official count, and stating that he wants to become a dictator on his first day of office should he win the presidential election this year.
Although Trump told CNN following Biden’s decision to drop out that “Harris will be easier to beat than Joe Biden would have been,” polling shows that this isn’t true.
As of Monday morning, the aggregate of polling data on RealClearPolling.com showed that Trump was ahead of Biden, on average, by 3.0 points. Trump is also ahead of Harris, but only by 1.7 points, well within the margin of error for most polls that are conducted nationally.
Critics seized on Trump’s demands that the terms of the debate be changed, saying he was not up to the challenge of debating Harris.
“Anyone who thinks Trump isn’t running scared of Harris should check out his last few Truth Social posts,” said Zeteo’s editor-in-chief Mehdi Hasan.
“Donald Trump is afraid to debate Kamala Harris,” wrote Jason Easley, managing editor at PoliticusUSA. “Donald Trump was also afraid to debate Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis [during the GOP primaries].”
“I don’t think he wants to debate Kamala Harris…he’s a political coward, there’s no doubt about it,” Al Sharpton said on MSNBC Monday morning.
“Trump backs out of scheduled debate. Afraid to face Kamala one on one,” Talking Points Memo founder Josh Marshall said.
“Donald Trump is too cowardly to debate Kamala Harris,” former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We’re presently working to find 1500 new monthly donors to Truthout before the end of the year.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy