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Biden Campaign Official Statement on the Townhall debate
Link to tweet
NEW: Biden campaign’s says that, with President Trump backing out of next week’s town hall-style debate, Joe Biden will instead seek another venue on Oct. 15 to have a town hall — and asks the Debate Commission to move the Biden-Trump town hall to Oct 22.
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Drunken Irishman
(34,857 posts)SlogginThroughIt
(1,977 posts)Show trump for the chicken shit he is.
Drunken Irishman
(34,857 posts)SlogginThroughIt
(1,977 posts)Drunken Irishman
(34,857 posts)Biden should have gone ahead with the debate and held it solo. What I believe is going to happen is either the debate commission declines Biden's request, and the last debate goes on as scheduled, but not as a town hall like Biden is requesting, and the second debate is completely canceled. Or they agree to the change, and Trump now has no excuse to not attend since it's an in-person event and he agrees to it.
Frankly, I think it'll be the first option. There's already a debate scheduled for the 22nd. The commission will just likely drop the second debate and Biden just gave them the green light to do so by saying he also won't attend.
SlogginThroughIt
(1,977 posts)Why should he subject himself to something he has less control over? Trump is already taking the heat for bailing.
Drunken Irishman
(34,857 posts)Maybe even worse. The debate has been pushed back to the 22nd and now it's likely the third debate is moved to the 29th at Trump's request. I don't like that.
But remember this all started because the premise was that Trump would keep rejecting debates. Well he didn't. He proposed to just move them back.
Meh
SlogginThroughIt
(1,977 posts)The take away is that trump is looking like a scared luttle shit. And Biden gets to do as he pleases.
Biden doesn’t need the debates. Trump does. As long as he wants to look like a chickenshit... Let him.
Drunken Irishman
(34,857 posts)As that's Trump's new proposal.
I do not like having another debate on Oct. 29th, six days before the election. I don't trust Trump and what desperate stunt he'd pull that close to election day.
SlogginThroughIt
(1,977 posts)Biden isn’t going to turn it down. He is going to show up remain even keeled and skate to victory.
Trump doesn’t seem on board with a virtual debate so who knows if we will see a second debate. And like I said Trump needs it more than Biden.
Drunken Irishman
(34,857 posts)I think he gave Trump leverage by also backing out and requesting to move the debate. That opened the door for Trump to counter and ask to move back the last debate as well.
He should have just let things play out a bit more, let Trump pout about it being virtual and force the committee's hand - or Trump's.
Because if the committee's wasn't going to let Biden hold the debate alone, they likely just cancel it and the next debate remains the last scheduled. Then Biden could still have his town hall. But now? With Biden asking to move it back, it opens the door to have the third debate be moved back as well.
It just feels Biden would have been best served with only one debate coming from this and his preemptive ask to push it back likely forces another debate, this time less than a week before the election.
SlogginThroughIt
(1,977 posts)It changed from a debate to an interview.
That isn’t the same thing and it opens him up solely to the in a venue that he has less control over versus one that he does. Nobody is going to say Biden backed out of the debate because he didn’t.
Drunken Irishman
(34,857 posts)And then requested the debate be moved to another day.
The exact quote from his campaign was:
“Given the President’s refusal to participate on October 15th, we hope the Debate Commission will move the Biden-Trump Town Hall to October 22nd, so that the President is not able to evade accountability."
It should have been:
"Despite the President's refusal to participate on October 15th, we still strongly believe in going forward with the town hall - with or without the President."
The point is, again, which is being ignored here, is that I do not agree with the last part of the statement where they offered to move the debate. That is what I said in my initial message and it's what I'm saying now. Biden should have never offered to move the debate. He should have forced the commission to either cancel it, or invite just him to debate (or force Trump to concede it being virtual). But his pulling out and requesting the debate being moved opened Trump up to asking for the third debate to be moved too.
Remember, in my initial reply, I asked why did he request to move it? I thought that was a bad move. Your response to Biden's request was that it was done to keep him rejecting and make him look chicken. I said I did not believe he would reject it, and you responded with snark about my crystal ball. Well, he didn't.
So now we're still likely getting two more debates. Which Biden does not need, as you said in another reply, and that last debate will come just days before the election. It's a win for Trump and a loss for the Biden campaign because, as you said, Trump NEEDS those debates. And now I'm nervous he's going to do something really crazy at that third debate.
But this could have been avoided if Biden hadn't offered to change the second debate to a week later. If the debate was canceled, it was canceled. That would have been on Trump. Plus, Biden could still score a primetime townhall on ABC still.
Drunken Irishman
(34,857 posts)SlogginThroughIt
(1,977 posts)That is the point. You cannot back out of a debate if there is no debate.
Drunken Irishman
(34,857 posts)Look, go back and re-read everything in this thread because what I said was absolutely true.
If you don't want to filter through this long thing, I'll help you out.
My first reply:
1. Why even request to move it? This I don't understand.
You responded:
2. To make trump keep rejecting it.
Show trump for the chicken shit he is.
I said:
4. He won't reject a stand up town hall on the 22nd.
YOU stated Trump would reject offering to postpone the debate. He did not. What I said was that Biden should have continued with it - and if the commission canceled the debate, which they probably would have, he could have held a town hall on his own.
That's all. You said Trump was too chicken to take Biden up on his offer but the Trump campaign turned around and offered to move the second debate to the 22nd and postpone the third debate to the 29th. Now the negotiations begin on that when it really likely didn't need to happen that way had Biden just let the second debate get CANCELED WITHOUT offering up a new date.
THAT is the crux of this discussion and exactly what I said in my very first reply to you. I still do not understand why Biden offered to move the debate.
He should have said that he plans to attend the commission's town hall with or without Trump. If the commission then canceled the event, so be it, he could turn around and do what he did anyway and snag a ABC townhall. BUT I don't understand why he asked to postpone the second debate. Trump pulling out should have either forced the commission to cancel or let Biden attend and have the 90 minutes to himself. But I question WHY he proactively offered up to postpone the dang thing. That's literally what sparked this discussion.
ProudMNDemocrat
(16,789 posts)For Joe Biden will seal the deal and send Donald Trump raging into Twitter tantrum no one will read.
The Biden campaign has been given a gift, courtesy of Trump. 
JCMach1
(27,572 posts)No out for Trump on town hall! Or he gets nothing after last week's assassination attempt