Trump rejects Fox News invite to debate Harris in late October

Harris could beat him on Fox, OAN, NewsMax or RT. She could do it anywhere and he knows it. He is a coward. If he had any backbone he would suggest another network.

Could she beat him in a box? Would she beat him with a fox? Could she beat him here or there? She would beat him anywhere!
- She could beat him the air,
  She could beat him just on hair!
  She could beat him day and night,
  It wouldn’t even be a fight!
  She’ll also catch him on the lam,
  And we’ll eat green eggs and ham!
- Yes.
In the arena of the screen so bright,
Harris stands ready,
a formidable sight.
On Fox or OAN,
she’s sure to prevail,
NewsMax and RT,
she’ll tip the scale.
He trembles in shadows,
a coward at heart,
Knowing her strength sets him worlds apart.
If courage were his,
he'd seek a new stage,
But silence remains,
locked in his cage.
Not necessarily, if instead of taking his talking points from freaks like Laura Loomer, he focused on associating Kamala with the unpopular policies of the democratic party (especially the ones Trump agrees with), he could hurt her numbers.
For each republican policy the democrats adopted chasing "moderate republicans", Trump can go "Kamala agrees shutting down the border and deporting all the brown people is a good thing. Who do you trust more to do it, America?", apply that logic to dems' "tough on crime" rhetoric, their foreign policy, their trade war with China, etc.
- That might work for any other Republican but this is Trump. He's the guy who tried to overturn the election, tried to force our allies to create scandals in exchange for aid, took care of Putin first during covid and told countless other lies. Any other Republican might be able to twist their record to win, but not him, his record it too extensive and insane.
- Trump can go "Kamala agrees shutting down the border and deporting all the brown people is a good thing. Who do you trust more to do it, America?",
  Kamala: "Trump told his own people to kill this bill, why would you trust him to actually go through with what he says?"

Did fox just offer him the friendliest possible venue for a massive media event, days before the election, and he turned it down?

I presumed the plan was to either let the harris campaign say no to fox so trump could call her a coward, or get a friendly venue to hammer whatever comey-esque hillary's emails nonsense russia cooks up this time.

Does trump turning this down seem like yet another own goal to anyone else? Or have I been underestimating how much the debate hurt him?

You may be underestimating the depth of the narcissistic wound Kamala dealt him at the debate.
I posted this last month:.
Calling it now:
Since there’s not enough time left for him to recover from this brutal ego bruise, I predict he’ll only do rallies from now on, or appearances on far-right media, because he’ll retreat to his snowglobe for reassurance for a while. He’ll avoid addressing Kamala directly, but he’ll ramp up his own network and rile up his mob. His team will struggle to rein him in, and some appearances might be cancelled.
He’s been more restrained at his rallies than I expected (he’s unhinged, sure, but only mildly more so). It may take him years – if at all – to recover from being so thoroughly bodied by a minority woman.
- I’m not saying anyone should care about him but I imagine two assassination attempts fucked with him too. He just announced rallies at Madison Square Garden and Coachella when he should be in swing states. People are trying to create rational reasons for it — like winning the House so he can steal the election — but I think he’s shook.
His cognitive decline might be accelerating too fast.

He runs from a FOX hosted debate? He must be scared shitless of that woman!

For serious. That's his cheer squad, guaranteed to try to help him. I thought she'd reject and he'd make a big deal out of it for the rest of the campaign. What a coward. Oh, Donnie. You shitbag.
- I thought she’d reject and he’d make a big deal out of it for the rest of the campaign.
  That was exactly what I was expecting, too. But hey, Donny saved us ;-)
Chickens naturally run from the fox
He's making up so much ground, he does so much better when he stfu or just says the things people expect him to say.
The more time he spends away from national cameras the better, that debate was brutal for him, it made even his followers have some doubts.
- Well, it did reveal what kind of idiot he is, so this debate was extremely useful for the voters.

"THERE WILL BE NO REMATCH," Trump said on his Truth Social platform. "SO THERE IS NOTHING TO DEBATE."

Trotting out the classics, huh? Big "If we did less testing, we'd have less COVID cases" energy.

Trump said it was very late in the process now to have a debate.

The second Presidential Debate in 2020 took place on Oct. 22nd. This invitation from Fox News is for Oct. 24th or 27th. And the original CNN debate was scheduled for Oct. 23rd so fuck right off with that excuse, coward.

And taxes when the audits are finished... He's so helpless.

I think he's just trying to coast on whatever popularity he has without fucking anything up. If anything this is probably the best call he could make. Which is why it's probably someone close to him telling him not to do anything stupid. Because, let's be honest, he's so dumb he'd go for it in a heartbeat.

No doubt his counselors are telling him to STFU, ride it out.
And fuck all y'all (not you OP!) saying he's always been this stupid. Been watching the man, more closely than I wanted to, over the last 6-years. His mind is circling the drain so fast even I'm stunned.

lol, what a coward. Won't even do a debate on a platform that goes all out to suck his dick.

The election is going to be tight. Right now, Harris leads very, very slightly, by about three points. FiveThirtyEight placed the odds at about 53-47 as of yesterday (and they're historically pretty good). Trump got his ass handed to him at the last debate, and he knows it. Unless he was able to git gud really fast, a 2nd debate would not improve his chances. Yes, he looks weak by not taking it on Fox of all places, but that's better than taking it an doing just as badly a 2nd time. There's almost no upside to him accepting an invitation to a debate.

But.

Trump is also incredibly egotistical. He wants to be on stage, and he thinks that he's good at debating. He wants to be seen; he needs to be seen. Turning down free publicity to present himself first--and his policies a distant second--on a national television program witnessed by millions of people, that's gotta hurt him.

And I refuse to get in a ring with Tyson...so, I can relate to his completely rational fear.

Just dodge when his outline flashes. After 90 seconds he starts throwing more normal punches and you can start doing some damage.

she put the fear in him

Republican former President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he will not debate Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, hours after Fox News invited the two presidential contenders to participate in a possible second debate on either Oct. 24 or Oct. 27.

Media Bias Fact Check | bot support

My read is that he like what he see's in the polling and he see's no reason to rearrange the pieces on the board. Harris has been struggling and backsliding on her own via bad campaign decisions. She blew her momentum on being "pro-buisness" and trying to court Republicans. Any idiot would have known the natural outcome of that strategy, but if you are a Democratic strategist, you aren't just "any idiot".

Over the next couple of days Harris is going to start going from dropping in the polls to dropping in the probabilistic models predictions of victory. Right now, we don't even need to worry about supreme court fuckery, because Harris is on track to lose this organically.

Harris needs to splash some cold water over her face, and go back to what was working. She could easily bite back 2-3% in the polling coming out strongly against genocide. Its been her game to lose since she took the reigns.

That doesn't line up as how the Republican campaign has been acting. For instance, they've started spending in areas like ME-2 which has been pretty strongly Republican for a while
Down ballot they're republicans are uping spending in places that should be theoretically solidly red like Nebraska (senate race) and Indiana (governor race)
How I'd read it has more to do with how Trump's been having more obvious mental decline lately. A second debate would really show that
- How I’d read it has more to do with how Trump’s been having more obvious mental decline lately. A second debate would really show that
  You need to think about who debates are for. Both you and I know both sides are going to claim a W. I mean, hell, look at the bag of idiots around this forum who were claiming that Joe Biden won his debate against Trump. Both sides are convinced at this point; thats not why you have them. You want a debate if you are behind because you need to somehow move the configuration of the conversation. And if Republicans are spending in ME-2? Bruh who gives a fuck about ME-2. Kamala is shaping up to lose PA. Its looking like she'll lose NC and GA and AZ. If she loses PA and any one of those states, its over.
  Kamala has one path to the white house at this point. She needs to repair her relationship with the uncommitted movement and drive turn-out among Democrats and Democratic likelies. Right now 2-3% of registered Democrats aren't going to show up for her based on her (and Bidens) position on Gaza. She needs to stop pretending that there are any sane voters left on the Republican side and stop putting effort into them and focus on the people that can actually get her elected.
Are you suggesting that because people aren't as excited now as they were when Biden first dropped out and endorsed Harris, she's tanking?
If you are, this is a bad argument. Anyone who knows politics knows her momentum was always going to slow, and polls will ebb and flow.
The polls have shown this is a historically close election, it has been since Harris announced and will be until election day.
- Her poll numbers went from flatlined to now declining. She's not only not gaining ground, she is now losing ground.
  If you are, this is a bad argument. Anyone who knows politics knows her momentum was always going to slow, and polls will ebb and flow.
  Yeah, I'm not interested in what most lemmings think is a bad or a good argument. Most lemming are fucking idiots when it comes to politics and are just here to cheer on their team. They are allergic to reality when it disagrees with how they wish things were.
  The polls have shown this is a historically close election, it has been since Harris announced and will be until election day.
  Yeah except that they are not. Its not even close to close right now. Harris has a -5 structural disadvantage baked into the EC map. So nationally, she needs to be up by 5 to be even. She's not up by five, she's up by 2-3, which means she's not even overcoming structural bias (MOE not even worth discussing here). Biden was up by +9 on election day. It came down to something like 80k total votes that gave Biden the office?
  So no. Kamala isn't winning. She's under performing Biden 2020. By a lot. She needs to do better or she'll lose this thing.