At least, that’s what it appears former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway is doing in her attempts to goad ex-President Trump into participating in another debate against Vice President Kamala Harris before the election.
Tonight’s debate between Trump running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) and Harris’ VP pick, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will be, it seems, the last major national campaign event before the election on November 5. While Harris has agreed to participate in an October 23 CNN debate against Trump, Trump has already shrugged it off as “too late” in the campaign cycle. Perhaps as part of his recent hand-wringing over the electoral calendar and doing things “too late” in the cycle, he could have a word with his Trumpy friends on the Georgia Election Board.
I digress.
With nothing left on the calendar, Conway, it seems, has been working overtime to convince the former president that it’s a bad look for him to let his running mate have the last word. Knowing his temperament, she may well be successful in goading Trump to participate on that alone. But in speaking about it ahead of Vance’s debate with Walz tonight, it also creates an opening for the former president to Kool-Aid Man in last minute and clean up Vance’s mess if he ditches his Yale debate club bro persona and leans too hard into the Weird tonight.
“I asked President Trump today, interviewed him for an hour, I said to him, ‘The guy I know, you, is not going to be able to sit down after a 90-minute VP debate and let that be the last word in presidential debates,’” Conway told Fox News Monday. “You’re going to say, ‘when’s our next one?’ And I hope he does that.”
“Why not get back in there?” she said.
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He should do it so Harris can kick his ass again.
Because he’s still healing the bruises to his ego and his a$$ from the last one they had.
Look. TIFBG figures he has the election in the bag because of all the cheating that’s about to happen on the GQP side, with voter suppression and chicanery in the certifications.
Why should he even bother?
You can bank on Trump proclaiming complete and total victory regardless of Vance’s performance.
Yes, I’d get popcorn in anticipation of that shellacking.
Not sure Conway gets the real picture: it is not that Trump would mind having “the last word” it’s that his entire message depends on deprecating Harris, comparing her unfavorably in the grossest terms, so any direct comparison with her now is virtually guaranteed to make him look bad even if she just opted to stand on the stage and smile at him.