Until we see him set foot on the debate stage Thursday night in Atlanta , there’s a strong chance the former president chickens out and runs to the safety of a rally where he can comfortably air his myriad grievances and extract money from his gullible fans.
Trump blasts out conspiracy theories ahead of a debate he clearly fears
Thursday's debate is on CNN with hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash moderating. There will be no audience, and the microphones will be cut off so only one candidate can speak at a time. These are all things Trump agreed to , but that hasn't stopped him and his allies from using unhinged conspiracy theories to lay down suppressive fire ahead of what they’re already claiming will be a “rigged” debate .
“He’s gonna be so pumped up,” Trump said of Biden at a recent Wisconsin rally. “He’s gonna be pumped up.”
With what? The Super Soldier Serum that turned Steve Rogers into Captain America?
Trump's MAGA minions peddle pathetic claim Biden will be on drugs
Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller said the former president is always “demonstrating elite stamina” and “does not need to be programmed by staff or shot up with chemicals like Joe Biden does.”
What are the chemicals? Who knows? The lunkheaded speculation runs from simple caffeine to cocaine to vague “performance-enhancing drugs.” Where is the evidence? There is none. When you live in MAGA-Fantasyland, no evidence is required, just fever-swamp daydreams.
We must stop pretending Trump is a normal candidate
But despite all this preemptive excuse-making, many in the news media continue to presume Trump will show up at Thursday night’s debate and behave like a normal political candidate. He won’t because he is not in any way, nor has he ever been, a normal political candidate.
He is a narcissist and a liar. He is a convicted felon and an election denier. He is wholly disinterested in policy and singularly focused on grifting his followers and covering his own behind.
Either Trump won't show up at the debate, or he'll storm out
There are only a few honest scenarios that can be teased out ahead of the debate.
The first, as mentioned before, is Trump turns tail and runs away from the debate, screaming about how it’s unfair and he’s treated so horribly and everyone is out to get him. A WHAAAAAAAAmbulance is dispatched to pick him up and deliver him to a nearby MAGA rally, where he delivers a record-breaking two continuous hours of woe-is-me-ing.
The second possibility is Trump shows up to the debate and then, after having his microphone cut off a couple of times or hearing a question about his own behavior that he considers unfair, storms off the stage, creating a dramatic, faux-tough-guy scene he can use to raise more money to pay his copious legal bills .
And if Trump does stay, it will be all noise and chaos and lies
The third possibility is Trump shows up and goes through the whole debate, acting like the oafish boor he is, hollering when his mic is off, making up fact-free nonsense about “rigged elections” and a “Biden crime wave” and whatever else passes through his spider-filled brain.
Then, afterward, he rails against the moderators, makes up more lies about Biden being on drugs, claims complete and total victory, says that “many are calling it the greatest debate performance they’ve ever seen,” and then puts out a slew of transparently scam-like fundraising emails trumpeting how the media and the deep state are trying to destroy him.
How some still pretend there’s anything remotely normal about Trump is beyond me. The only thing he is at this point is predictable. You know he'll do all these crazy things because those are EXACTLY the same crazy things he has always done.
The bar for Biden at the debate has been set so low a snake could trip over it. But despite all the “Sleepy Joe” rhetoric coming from Trump and his Republican allies, it’s clear they know Thursday night might not end well for Trump.
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That’s why my money is on him fleeing like the coward he has repeatedly shown himself to be.
He’s going to say he won, no matter what. Why bother showing up in the first place?
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