Donald Trump announced Monday that he wants to debate President Biden “now,” despite boycotting all Republican primary debates.
Chastising that Biden lacks the mental fitness to confront him, Trump also appeared to question whether the commander in chief will run for the White House again.
“He can’t do it because he can’t talk. Can not do nothing. It’s ruining our country. And I don’t think he’s going to run; I don’t know if they are donors or not. It could be his family, it could be something,” the former president said on “The Dan Bongino Show.”
“I would like to debate him now because we should debate for the good of the country,” Trump added.
Biden later laughed at Trump’s incitement.
“If I were him, he would also want to debate me. He has nothing else to do,” the president told reporters at Boba Tea in Las Vegas.
Trump’s last major Republican rival, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s team, criticized Trump for focusing on Biden and ignoring her.
Donald Trump could barely contain his giddiness at the prospect of facing President Biden. AP
“We are delighted to see that Donald Trump has finally recognized the importance of the debates,” Haley’s national spokeswoman, Olivia Pérez-Cubas, said in a statement.
“Now is the time for Trump to be a man and agree to debate Nikki Haley. “Nikki is willing to pit her conservative record and her vision of a strong and proud America against Trump’s campaign of chaos and revenge.”
Trump previously argued that it wasn’t worth spending time defending himself against his worse-polling Republican rivals on the debate stage.
Nikki Haley has criticized Donald Trump for avoiding the Republican Party primary debates. AFP via Getty Images
In the 2020 election cycle, Trump and Biden faced each other twice. One of the debates was scrapped because Trump contracted COVID-19.
After the general election debate, the Republican National Committee lashed out at the Commission on Presidential Debates, which orchestrated the celebrated verbal clashes for more than three decades.
The RNC and Trump complained about the moderators and accused them of being biased. The RNC further claimed that the commission refused to make the reforms it sought.
Making things a bit complicated for Trump is the fact that the RNC has threatened to ban candidates from participating in CPD-sponsored debates.
Joe Biden laughed at Donald Trump’s challenge. REUTERS
Last year, the commission announced the dates for three general election debates. Early polls suggest that environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy might meet the criteria to take the stage.
Trump has previously reflected on a confrontation with Biden on the debate stage and has expressed concerns about the CPD.
“Oh, I’m looking forward to that. How about 10 debates?,” she joked in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt in December.
Donald Trump has signaled that he could support changes in the leadership of the Republican National Committee. AP
“They’re corrupt,” he told Hewitt at the time about the CPD. “They are terrible. That said, I would do 20 debates even if they were organized by them… I would do a debate every night with this guy.”
Despite the RNC’s grievances with the CPD, Trump will exert a strong influence on the organization if he wins the Republican nod to be its standard-bearer.
He recently suggested parting ways with president Ronna McDaniel amid his lackluster fundraising numbers.
“I think he did very well when he coached Michigan for me. I think he did well at first on the Republican National Committee. I would say at this point there will probably be some changes made,” Trump told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn