Trump tantrumed and even quit a debate with Joe Biden in 2020, but now he’s even more emotionally volatile
Donald Trump has tried to taunt President Joe Biden by claiming he’s ready for a presidential debate “anytime, anywhere.” The gambit left him little choice but to immediately accept when the Biden campaign offered debate dates in June and September, and terms like not having an audience and allowing real journalists to moderate. But within mere hours it became clear that Trump and the rest of the GOP already regretted the decision.
Pretty quickly, Trump tried to change the terms of the debate, pretending that it will be held on Oct. 2 on Fox News. The Biden campaign swiftly rejected this lie, accusing Trump of “playing games,” and pointing out that Trump frequently talks big but then ends up "pulling out at the last minute, or not showing up at all."
It’s true, of course. Trump has a habit of promising that he’ll do bold things and then backing out, whether it’s his empty promises to testify at his various trials or his false claims he’ll release policy proposals in a week or two. (It’s been over a month of silence, for instance, since he promised he would release an abortion platform in “14 days.”) In 2020, still burned by his terrible first debate with Biden, Trump refused to show up at the second and held an ego-flattering rally instead.
On October 9, 2023, RFK Jr. said that he would run as an independent candidate. Technically if he’s independent, he too should be on the stage.
Don’t get it mixed up, I’m not vouching for RFK Jr., I just believe in what’s fair. But you’re right, the U.S. seems to be a two party system, so they make the rules.
If you let every independent unaffiliated unnominated person running for president on stage it would be chaos. There have to be barriers to entry for it to be anything but.
Saying you’re running isn’t enough, you have to be on the ballot and RFK isn’t on the ballot in enough states to win.