Republican voters, eager for someone “who fights” after those too-polite-to-fight losers, John McCain and Mitt Romney, found one in Donald Trump. During the GOP primary debates, Trump fought — detractors claimed “bullied” — his way through a crowded field of 16 other contenders. Mostly what I remember from those debates was the other Republicans rarely having a clue how to deal with someone like Trump, who understood street-level fighting better than any other GOP contender in approximately ever.
Trump brought that same fighting instinct to his debates against Hillary Clinton. And if Trump wasn’t always as well prepared for the debates as some might have hoped, in the end, that didn’t matter. What mattered is that he fought, and fought hard, for his supporters’ interests — and America’s.
This morning Trump took that fighting spirit to the Presidential Debate Commission itself.
….The problem is that the so-called Commission on Presidential Debates is stacked with Trump Haters & Never Trumpers. 3 years ago they were forced to publicly apologize for modulating my microphone in the first debate against Crooked Hillary. As President, the debates are up…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 16, 2019
The reaction from the left was as predictable as it was comical in its outrage.
This is just a small selection of the manufactured outrage, but do please take note of all the blue checkmarks. You might enjoy revisiting these accounts in nine or ten months, and retweeting them during the Trump v. Dem nominee debates.
Did I say comically outraged? More like comically deluded. Trump’s debate performances in 2015-16 absolutely propelled him into the White House. To claim that he’s afraid to debate wouldn’t be any different from asserting that Trump is about to give up Twitter.
Ain’t. Gonna. Happen.
What Trump is almost certainly doing here, in his usual style, is preparing the battlespace for changes to the Commission on Presidential Debates.
….to me, and there are many options, including doing them directly & avoiding the nasty politics of this very biased Commission. I will make a decision at an appropriate time but in the meantime, the Commission on Presidential Debates is NOT authorized to speak for me (or R’s)!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 16, 2019
The Commission hasn’t exactly done a stellar job since it was established in 1987, with maybe the most egregious offenses occurring during the 2012 Obama-Romney foreign policy debate. If there is any election institution in need of reform (unlike the Electoral College), it’s the Commission.
So Trump goes on a tear, allowing the usual outrage manufacturers to manufacture the usual outrage against him, but in the end, you can bet that whatever Trump proposes, it won’t involve him skipping the debates or any radical changes. What he’ll probably ask for — and maybe even get — is sensible reforms to who moderates the debates, and how.
I for one am looking forward to a new and improved Debate Commission, but mostly I’m getting a kick out of the Left’s unhinged reaction.
Again.
And you can bet Trump is loving it, too, just like he enjoys any good fight.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member