Momentum is the story of how the presidential horserace is playing out— not how some weeks-old polling averages that include GOP firms like Rasmussen look at the contest. And unless Trump halts Kamala’s momentum, he’s going to lose the popular vote by more than he lost it in 2016 (2,869,686 votes) or 2020 (7,059,526 votes) and he’s not going to come close in the electoral vote either— with Kamala taking Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, New Hampshire, Arizona, Nevada and not just Omaha but rural Maine district to boot… and with Georgia and North Carolina still up in the air. (How much of a drag on the whole GOP ticket is crackpot MAGAt Mark Robinson going to be?). Maybe Trump thought his RFK Jr scheme would turn the tide. Ha! Two nuts instead of one? Three nuts instead of two?
Something unexpected could happen between now and November, but unless it’s pretty big, Trump’s only chance to turn around the momentum would be winning the September 10 debate. Supremely self-confident on the outside, he knows if he goes up against Kamala, he’s going to get his ass kicked and everyone in the country is going to be talking about the prosecutor vs the convicted criminal. He wants to back out of the debate now— or leverage his very weak hand into some concessions. After he hinted in a social media post Sunday night that he might not show up for the debate, Marianne LeVine explained the big concession Team Trump wants.
“Brian Fallon, the Harris campaign’s senior adviser for communications,” reported LeVine, “said in a statement, that the campaign has told ABC and other networks that ‘both candidates’ mics should be live throughout the full broadcast.’ Our understanding is that Trump’s handlers prefer the muted microphone because they don’t think their candidate can act presidential for 90 minutes on his own,’ Fallon said.”
The June 27 CNN debate between Trump and President Joe Biden had no studio audience, two commercial breaks and microphones that immediately turned off when a candidate was not speaking.
It’s not the first time the former president has suggested he would back out of the ABC News debate. Earlier this month, Trump said that he would no longer appear at the Sept. 10 debate— previously scheduled with President Joe Biden before he dropped out of the race— and would only debate Harris at a Sept 4. debate hosted by Fox News. Trump, however, reversed course several days later and said at a news conference that he would debate Harris on ABC. Trump also proposed debates on Fox News and NBC.
Michael Tyler, communications director for the campaign of Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, put out a statement recently that said “the debate about debates is over.” In the statement, Tyler said that “assuming Donald Trump actually shows up on September 10 to debate Vice President Harris,” Walz and Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate would debate on Oct. 1 and that another debate would occur in October.
He saw how Biden's chances to be reelected collapsed after he bad debate performance. It must haunt him. Still, I really doubt he will, but if Trump actually does worm out of the September 10 debate, how likely will it be that he allows JD Vance to debate Tim Walz? And if he does, what happens if one of the moderators asks a question about Warren Zevon’s music?
He's not planning to win the election but to steal it. Witness the recent voter suppression stories from Texas, Georgia, North Carolina.....