Illustration by Paola Bilancieri.
On August 2, 2024, Donald Trump reneged on his commitment to participate in the presidential debate scheduled for September 10 on ABC News. He presented a counterproposal to face off Vice President Kamala Harris (whose name he mispronounces as KaMAla Harris, among other nicknames) on Fox News six days earlier than agreed on, in Pennsylvania.
With his characteristic nonchalance, he proposed that the rules for the debate “will be similar to the rules of my debate with Sleepy Joe, who has been treated horribly by his party –BUT WITH A FULL ARENA AUDIENCE!” Nobody who has seen Trump’s behavior should have any doubt that what he was proposing was to create a circus atmosphere that would alter and cheapen the event.
Predictably, the Harris team refused those terms and Michael Tyler, the communications director for the Harris campaign said that it was open to discussing further debates if Trump honored his commitment to the ABC debate and added, “Mr. Anytime, Anywhere, Anyplace, should have no problem with that unless he’s too scared to show up on the 10th.”
As I was thinking about these issues, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that last night, in the middle of summer, I dreamt that I was Donald J. Trump and was giving the reasons not debate Kamala Harris.
1) Why should I debate Kamala Harris, since I am way ahead in all polls in every single state of America?
2) Why should I debate Kamala Harris, since I am a proud white male and she is only a Black/Indian female?
3) Why should I debate Kamala Harris since I am an accomplished golf player, winner of several international golf tournaments, and she doesn’t even play golf?
4) Why should I debate Kamala Harris since I can mispronounce her name and she can’t mispronounce mine?
5) Why should I debate Kamala Harris since we are on opposite sides of the fence, she as prosecutor and I as a convicted rapist and guilty felon on 34 counts?
6) Why should I debate Kamala Harris if I have tainted forever the electoral process and she has not?
7) Why should I debate Kamala Harris when I am surrounded by convicted felons and she is not?
8) Why should I debate Kamala Harris when her favorite books are Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison and The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, while my favorite books are those that I wrote myself?
9) Why should I debate Kamala Harris, who talks about politics of inclusion when as I said at rally in Minnesota, “They all say, I think he’s changed. I think he’s changed since two weeks ago. Something affected him.’? No, I haven’t changed –maybe I’ve gotten worse, actually.”
10) Why should I debate Kamala Harris, with her silly smile, when, as I told protesters at a rally speech in Iowa, “If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you?”
11) Why should I debate Kamala Harris, with her record of academic achievement when, as I told at a caucus victory speech in Las Vegas in 2016 “I love the poorly educated?”
12) Why should I debate Kamala Harris when, while she has been endorsed by every living Democratic President –Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barak Obama and Joe Biden– no former President from my own party has endorsed me, not even my own Vice-President?
13) Why should I debate Kamala Harris who wholeheartedly supported a bipartisan immigration bill for the southern border with Mexico while I ordered Republican lawmakers to kill that deal?
14) Why should I debate Kamala Harris if she convened a meeting at the White House to discuss policies to improve the lives of people with disabilities while I told my nephew Fred Trump III that people with serious disabilities should just die?
Suddenly, I felt my wife kissing me on the cheek and trying to shake me awake while saying, “Wake up, honey, wake up, you are shaking your fist and yelling. Are you having a nightmare?”
