Prediction: Trump will not debate anyone.

[Dream Girl]

His mind is too far gone. He can’t do it.

[wcmagumba]

1. I think he'll...

come up with some lame excuse like I don't need to debate.

[EveHammond13]

2. good. he turns every debate into a roll in pig slop. it's not worth it.

no matter how smart or good or well-prepared we are --- he will lie, he will abuse, he will slander, he will slur, he will stalk, he will interrupt, he will gish-gallop - there is simply NO GODDAMNED POINT to giving him a national platform for that shit.

no debate. no point. let him slop the MAGA hogs on his own time.

[BadgerMom]

21. This. 👆🏻

[sprinkleeninow]

26. Going, going, gone... n/t

[Maru Kitteh]

37. "let him slop the MAGA hogs on his own time"

[StevieM]

3. Well, he was certainly destroyed in all three debates last time around.

But he may have deluded himself into believing that he won.

[fescuerescue]

60. I'm of the opinion that most debates aren't really won

At least not in a singular sense. Each debate has a winner/loser in the mind of the viewer for sure.

SO Trump voters think Trump won and Hillary voted know that Hillary won etc.

It's extremely rare that anyone ever, ever says that the candidate from the opposite party "won". Certainly not in real time. This does happen occasionally when looking at historical debates where there are no longer any stakes. Even then it's not common.

Debates are really about giving each candidate time to express their views an opportunity to compare/contrast/defend/attack the opponents views.

[Hoyt]

4. Would hate to see him get off that easy, but hard to argue with your post.

[Fiendish Thingy]

5. He could get away with it for the primaries, but not the general

If he refuses to debate the Dems nominee, he will seal his doom, and be seen for the coward he is.

[jmowreader]

36. His base will love him even more for it

[Nay]

62. Agreed. Anything to "own the libtards." nt

[trev]

47. I suppose there are still some undecideds out there

who might see him as a coward. But, IMO, if they don't see that already, they aren't likely to change their minds.

[MontanaMama]

6. Damn.

You might be right.

[customerserviceguy]

7. If polls show him trailing after the conventions

he's going to have to.

[Dream Girl]

8. If he does, he'll be a snarling incoherent mess

[customerserviceguy]

10. And his base will love it. n/t

[Sugarcoated]

40. They're irrelevant

Its the 20% that matters. Independents, moderates, blue collar Dems in the rust belt states and Republican college-educated Suburban women. Nazis are going to Nazi, people with morals values and decency matter.

[LiberalBrooke]

43. His base loved when he was awful.

They ate up his bullying last election and it will only be worse in 2020.

[LanternWaste]

56. That being the same base that would vote for him regardless of a debate.

I.e., a moot point.

[NewJeffCT]

48. Clinton handily beat Trump in the debates

and, after the 3rd debate, Trump was fading... until the Comey letter to Congress was leaked by Jason Chaffetz

[JaneQPublic]

9. Yep. This time he'd have to defend his past 4 years.

Nixon didn't debate McGovern, and Trump is just as thin-skinned.

[customerserviceguy]

12. That's something you have to thank Jimmy Carter for

He was the first incumbent President to debate a challenger. Since then, it's been standard.

[AdamGG]

25. I love Carter, but Ford was the first incumbent to engage in a debate

That was the 1st Presidential debate I watched when I was 12. Ford had a bizarre gaffe when he claimed that there was no Soviet influence in Poland.

[customerserviceguy]

46. True

I did forget that. But, the 1976 election was different, Ford had not been previously elected as either President or Vice-President on a ballot in front of all of the American voters, so he wasn't a typical incumbent. It's probably why he felt the need to engage Carter in a debate.

[treestar]

57. A similar gaffe today

By the Idiot in Chief. He’d get away with it.

[AdamGG]

69. Dotard makes similar gaffes every day

[maryellen99]

50. Nixon also refused to debate Humphrey as well nt

[JaneQPublic]

61. Good point... probably because Tricky Dick did so poorly against JFK. (nt)

[former9thward]

70. He actually did not do poorly.

If you were watching television on the night of Sept. 26, 1960, you probably thought that the young Sen. John F. Kennedy had won that night's presidential debate. Yet if you heard the event on radio, Vice President Richard M. Nixon was the clear winner.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/1960-first-televised-presidential-debate/

[JaneQPublic]

71. Yeah, that's common knowledge.

But it's the VIDEO clips of the debate that became iconic and set public view of Nixon as a weak debater in later years when he ran again.

[GulfCoast66]

11. I've said he same for a while.

None of our top tier candidates carry the 30 year history of smears Hillary had.

And they will ignore his 3rd grade insults and talk policy.

Plus, his mind has degraded in the last 3 years.

He’s debating no one.

[customerserviceguy]

13. But

He's even more full of himself than he was in 2016.

[GulfCoast66]

19. Well, you may be correct. But it will kill him.

The narrative on DU is that everyone who voted for him is a racist and down with everything he does. But that is not true. I have good friends that did. Their almost adult kids(who lean liberal) are my god kids and that was done way before trump. I will not be the one to kill the relationship because of the kids. And they are generally very good folks. We vacation with them and watch no tv and generally talk no politics.

Fox News has a hold on one of them but both are starting to have real questions.

The male, my friend actually said he could vote for Biden. He wants normalcy. If trump handles a debate like he did his recent Fox appearance, which he would, ranting about Mueller and witch hunts, he would lose a good bit of the non-evangelical voters.

Which is why I think his handlers would convince him it was his idea not to debate. They know he is batshit crazy.

My opinion anyway.

Those crazies will never change(evangelicals). I know. Used to be one of them.

[watoos]

63. I was going over the paper work

for buying a car and talked quite a bit about being positive with the financial person. The nice lady who was doing the paperwork turned a bit religious, about trusting God's plan. She then asked me about Trump. I told her that when I saw a video of Trump looking at a 10 year old girl with sexual thoughts and saying that he would be dating her in 10 years, that was enough for me. She paused a moment and then said that he has the country going in the right direction. She proved to me your point, the Evangelicals will never desert Trump because they believe that Trump is God's chosen one. Trump could shoot her husband right in front of her and she will vote for him in 2020.

[myohmy2]

14. you may be right...

...trump will only debate if he's convinced he'll come out on top...that's why we need a strong candidate capable of giving trump a heavy dose of his own medicine; capable of not letting trump off the hook...

...and trump would probably get away without debating just like he got away without releasing his tax returns...trump doesn't/wouldn't have time to debate; too busy being president...

...

[Dream Girl]

17. And golfing

[LuckyLib]

28. and tweeting nonstop.

[Wash. state Desk Jet]

15. What they discovered about Trump the so call TV personality is that he cannot fallow a script.

He cannot memorize and he cannot recite. If you ever heard Trump do the take me out to the ball game song at a Yankees game ,you know he cannot carry a tune. Doing lines off a script is worse than that for Trump- in fact he is a disaster! That is why they had to let Trump be Trump, whatever he comes off with. The Apprentice, and any tv appearance he ever made. Saturday night live too. So, they will never be able to prep him and all he can do be Trump. So he makes faces ! If he wants to portray he thinks it's bull shit, he has a face for that. He's pantomime Trump. Imagine how many endless hours Trump spent in front of mirror making those faces. And indeed, how disgusting it is. Thing of it is, that's all he's got. Any time the cameras are on Trump- it's all about the Trump show, his fan base. It's all about the Donald to Trump always, nothing more.

[Gothmog]

16. I think that trump would be afraid to face Biden

[emmaverybo]

23. Would shatter his faux populism and masculinity, also make mush out of him on foreign

policy. Trump could not paint Biden as elitist or leftist. He could not compete with his knowledge-base on everything to do with government.
Biden would also use personal dynamics— humor, warmth, the Biden smile and laugh— to defeat him. Biden would not be intimidated in the least. Trump is deathly afraid of Joe Biden.

[Midnight Writer]

18. Trump could walk on, drop trou, crap on the floor, swagger off with a smirk, and enchant his people.

Fox and Friends would call it three dimensional chess.

[czarjak]

20. Shoot somebody in the middle of 5th Ave.?

[dawg day]

30. My mother-in-law would praise the aroma

It's almost impressive the lengths they go through to defend him.
And he cares nothing about any of them. Amazing.

[GoneOffShore]

64. Wow, you've captured the spirit of my response to Tr**Putinista's

I save this as a boilerplate and use it liberally on Facebook.

I was going to write a whole cited response to let you know how wrong you are on every level, but then realized it would be futile. So just for fun, I'll knowingly resort to an ad hominem attack, which is much more satisfying - You're an egregious and irredeemable fuckwit - And ultimately, believing ridiculous things for ridiculous reasons will always rot your judgment and lead to swallowing tripe like chemtrails, religion, the Republican Party platform and Tr**Putin’s lies.
I suspect that Tr**Putin could come to your house, crap on the rug, shoot your dog, do your wife or sheep(though they could be one and the same), and then you'd thank him and ask if he'd like a BJ, a cup of covfefe, and a hamberder.

[AdamGG]

22. After JFK vs. Nixon, there were no debates in 1964, 1968 or 1972

Because LBJ and Nixon saw themselves as significantly ahead and saw no reason to risk it in a debate. Trump won't be ahead in the polls and I think it would play badly if he refuses to debate. When McCain tried to postpone the debates because of the financial crisis, public opinion forced him to quickly change his mind. I don't see how Trump will be able to ridicule "Pocahantas" or "Sleepy Joe" or whoever and then chicken out on debating them.

I think he'll debate and do the same moronic schtick and it will wear much worse than the first time, but I didn't think he could get elected in 2016.

[JohnnyRingo]

24. You might be right.

He only holds up anymore at rallies where he does an uncontested monologue.

If he does, it'll be under strict rules. Like the democrat isn't allowed to talk directly to him.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

27. If he does, it will be with earpieces and a huge pair of Depends.

He would need Secret Service-style earbud comms to a roundtable of his top-level experts on everything like Bannon, Mnutskin, Miller and Hannity to keep him in line.

Oh wait. Those aren't experts, they're fascist assholes........

[dawg day]

29. I think you're right... then again-

Is he conscious enough to decide not to debate?

And let's face it-- Hillary trounced him in debates-- it was never close. Even then-- 3 years earlier than now-- he was stupid and ranty and incoherent. His voters still thought he won.

I'm counting on the notoriously short American attention span: "I am so tired of him. Jeez, can he just GO AWAY?"
I suspect that if he debates, even his cultists will find something else to do than watch it... we will all be so annoyed or bored with him, even the ones who would slit their throats at his command.

[True Blue American]

41. Did you notice Trump almost fell asleep during the last Medal ceremony?

The man is not well. He seems to have some narcolepsy.

[maryellen99]

51. Most likely sleep apnea and won't use a machine nt

[True Blue American]

68. I think he was bored. It was during the speech.

Trump had to stand and listen.

[moonscape]

31. The networks should block off prime time for

a few presidential debates, and tell him they'll have the podium - occupied or no - for the debate.

Then he'd show up!

[Bigredhunk]

32. I Think He Will

Regardless of what happens in the debate, presidential debates get a sh*t load of viewers/high ratings. He's waayyyy too in love with himself/coverage of himself (of any kind) to not show up.

Plus, all the cringe-worthy stuff he did (having a press conference with all of the women against Bill Clinton, saying he'd put HRC in jall, stalking HRC around the stage, bragging about himself) probably gets really high marks from the base. I'm sure he hears that feedback and loves it.

[democratisphere]

33. I heard he wants to debate himself with Maria Bartiromo sitting in silence.

[RDANGELO]

34. Maybe one.

Then he will proclaim that the media is too unfair to him.

[Kablooie]

35. No reason for him to do it.

He has his base and doesn't care about anyone else.
A debate would have a potential downside and no upside for him.

[OrlandoDem2]

38. He will just lie like in the Stephanopolus interview and the base will believe him.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

39. He has to. I think it is under the auspices of the ECC rules.

And he can't be seen being called a chicken.

[brooklynite]

45. No he doesn't have to because he, and the Democrat, won't take FEC funds

However, he'll debate because he believes he's a brilliant communicator.

[no_hypocrisy]

42. He'll "debate" but it won't be along the lines of debate rules.

He'll treat it as another rally where he berates, obfuscates, bloviates and stays off topic -- and then smiles with satisfaction.

[dalton99a]

44. Agree.

[trev]

49. Maybe he'll send in his debate responses via Twitter....

[wryter2000]

52. Have debates without him

Just an hour with the Democratic nominee.

[Wounded Bear]

53. I doubt it...

Trump always thinks he's the smartest person in the room. He thrives on bullying opponents into submission. He thinks his debate performances are his strong suit. Last election cycle, far too many people agreed with him.

He'll debate. He'll lose. His base will stick by him.

[underpants]

54. Agreed agreed agreed

His debates in 2016 were actually very bad for him. It was almost the only time people got to really see Hillary and hear from her not about her.

It has to be used correctly but Trump has offered a hammer to anyone he debates. At some point when talking about someone he doesn’t like OR if Putin comes up all the Dem has to say or allude to is “Aren’t they your type?”

[gopiscrap]

55. I don't see how he would get away with not debating

unless he gets us in a war during the election season and says he's too much of a statesman to spend valuable time debating a challanger

[bronxiteforever]

58. So you don't think the stalker returns?

[Bayard]

65. I was going to say,

Think about this: How will various Dem candidates respond to tRump coming up behind them like this?

I think its a toss up between who will turn around and punch him, and who will try to ignore him.

[bronxiteforever]

66. +1 You have a point there!

[fescuerescue]

59. It was gone in 2016 too

He loves being the spotlight.

I wouldn't be surprised if he wanted MORE debates. Hell he's been campaigning since the inauguration!

Remember - people that losing their minds - don't have the mental capacity to know they are losing their mind.

[IcyPeas]

67. Trump/ Hillary debate broke ALL records

The MSM would probably love it. People will tune in to watch the clown.

Does He ever say NO to appearing on TV?

We know it doesn't matter what he says or does.

[misanthrope]

72. Bone spurs flaring up again?

What a bwave widdle boy. Give little Donnie mo-wuh ice cream for his boo-boo.

[Raine]

73. I think he definitely will

he won't miss the chance to be on the camera and center of attention, Trump loves that kind of thing.

[EffieBlack]

74. If Kamala's the nominee, he won't

Not after tonight.