The second presidential debate that was to be held today was officially canceled after President Donald Trump refused to participate in the virtual format that was necessitated by the fact that he contracted COVID-19 through his own gross negligence.
Clearly the president feels he has a better opportunity to win over voters by holding more COVID superspreader events or firing off tweets about Steve Scully’s DMs, the investigation into his former national security advisor, and his victimhood at the hands of the Commission on Presidential Debates.
Setting the strategic merits of this move aside, I’m struck by how Trump’s decision to duck Biden must have come as a shock to our friends in the MAGA media.
For months leading up to the debate, viewers of Fox News and readers of the venerated journals of the online right were told that Donald Trump was such a killer that it was possible, nay likely, that his opponent would cower in fear at the prospect of going mano-a-mano and come up with an excuse not to debate him at all. This contention was pushed by the president’s staff and surrogates.
So the people who get news from these outlets had to have been floored when the news came that it was the other way around: Donald Trump is cowering at the prospect of meeting Joe Biden on the debate stage after getting so thoroughly schlonged in the first contest.
Isn’t it ironic. Like rain on your wedding day.
https://thebulwark.com/scaredy-trump-ducks-debate-maga-media-hardest-hit/