‘He Can’t Run Away From It’: CNN’s Chris Wallace Says ‘Zero Chance’ Trump Lets Go Of Election Lies At Biden Debate

CNN anchor Chris Wallace said there is “zero chance” ex- Donald Trump’s will abandon the issue of his 2020 defeat when he debates President Joe Biden.

President Joe Biden and Trump are set to debate on June 27 in the earliest general election presidential matchup ever, with Jake Tapper and Dana Bash moderating.

Pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson , and journalists Lulu Garcia-Navarro , Nia-Malika Henderson , and Kara Swisher joined Wallace for this week’s edition of CNN’s The Chris Wallace Show on Saturday morning, during which Wallace asked how Trump should do with “questions about election denial,” noting “He doesn’t want to relitigate it, but he can’t run away from it either”:

WALLACE: What does he do with questions about election denial, about whether or not he lost the 2020 election and whether Joe Biden is the legitimate president?

ANDERSON: Now, in a perfect world, I would say, say you accept the election results and move on. I know we don’t live in that world, but I do think that he needs to remember that he is not at a rally. He is not speaking to his faithful. He is speaking to a much broader group for voters, the types of folks who are not as tuned in, who are checking in on this, if only for the entertainment value. They are not going to be interested in hearing Trump try to relitigate the election from four years.

WALLACE: Nia, what does Trump need to do in this debate? And what does he need to avoid?

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, OPINION COLUMNIST, “BLOOMBERG”: Listen, I think he needs to avoid rambling and going on and on in this sort of tangential speech that we have seen from him in all of the speech.

WALLACE: In fairness, there are going to be sharp time limits, so he may be able to go on, but now —

HENDERSON: Yes, but that seems to be his preferred speaking style, sort of disjointed, all over the place. So I think he has to avoid that.

I also think he has to avoid going into the weeds about the prior election and all this sort of grievance stuff. That does well with the base. It doesn’t do well with the broad audience that he’s going to see.

He’s got to accept this is going to be probably the most watched debate we’ve seen in many, many years. And he’s got to know that he’s got to expand his audience beyond just a true MAGA folks —

WALLACE: Look, he has been talking nonstop to his base about that he won the 2020 election. How does he handle that? I take Kristen’s point. He doesn’t want to relitigate it, but he can’t run away from it either.

HENDERSON: Yes. Don’t mention it. If he can avoid bringing it up, he should, he should move on. He should, he should try to accept, to the extent that he can, say President Biden is the president. I want to replace him in November. Vote for me. Move on. The grievance around this is just not a good idea for him.

WALLACE: Eliana, there is zero chance that does that.

HENDERSON: I think that’s right, there is zero chance.

Watch above via CNN’s The Chris Wallace Show .