REVENGE MATCH: Trump wants new DEBATE FACE-OFF with Biden
The former president and the current president could soon take the debate stage together.
After winning almost all of the Super Tuesday state primaries, Donald Trump turned his attention to the presumptive Democratic nominee and incumbent, Joe Biden (who won primaries in every state). Now he says he’d like to face off in a debate — an interesting prospect when one candidate can’t even keep the name of his opponent straight but is trying to project the same struggle onto the man he calls “the enemy.”
Now that Nikki Haley is out of the race, Trump took one last jab at her, posting on his social media to declare she “got trounced” and claimed that most of her voters are “radical left Democrats,” before inviting her supporters (who he’s previously said are “permanently barred from the MAGA camp”) to cast their general election ballots for him instead. Then he turned his attention to the current president.
In a series of three posts, including the one that started with Haley, Trump declared Biden “the enemy,” announced his plans for the State of the Union Address (which House Republicans have failed to prevent Biden from presenting), and declared a desire to debate. First, he said:
“BIDEN IS THE ENEMY, HE IS DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
Aside from the obvious problems with painting other Americans as “the enemy,” it’s a chilling statement in light of what his followers have already done, threatened to do, or attempted to do to Trump’s perceived “enemies.” Legislators, judges, prosecutors, and even witnesses and victims have faced harassment and threats.
Biden will be presenting the annual State of the Union Address on Thursday, and Trump says that he plans to follow along to “correct” in real-time. He said:
“I am pleased to inform you that tomorrow night we will be doing a LIVE, Play by Play, of Crooked Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address. I will correct, in rapid response, any and all inaccurate Statements, especially pertaining to the Border and his Weaponization of the DOJ, FBI, A.G.s, and District Attorneys, to go after his Political Opponent, ME (something never done before in this Country!).”
In fact, he says, he’d like to have a chance to counter Biden face-to-face. Trump, who has been stumbling over words like “Venezuela” and “crime” lately, may not find that he has the same energy on the debate stage that he did in 2020 when he attacked the now-president’s deceased son and told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” instead of “stand down.” Still, he declared:
“It is important, for the Good of our Country, that Joe Biden and I Debate Issues that are so vital to America, and the American People. Therefore, I am calling for Debates, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE, ANYPLACE!”
In the 2020 debates, Biden responded with calm and wit, telling him at one point, “Will you shut up, man? This is so unpresidential!” as Trump continued to interrupt and shout over him.
There could be a repeat — if, in fact, Trump can find time in his busy trial schedule to squeeze in a debate.
Watch that moment from the 2020 debate below.
