Over the last two weeks, Democrats have engaged in a bizarre effort to bait, bully, and badger Donald Trump into debating Kamala Harris. Bizarre because we watched this same gambit play out just a few months ago with disastrous results for the very same Democrats. It was only May of this year when Joe Biden laid the trap for Trump that instead sprung back on him and mortally wounded his own candidacy.
"Go ahead, make my day" was the taunt from Old Joe, referencing the 50-year-old Clint Eastwood classic. We must have missed the one where Dirty Harry got his head blown off in the opening scene.
What followed from Biden’s challenge was a barrage of tough talking from his campaign aides before Trump quickly accepted. And then we got another barrage of media commentary about how stupid and impulsive the Trump campaign was for taking the bait. The rules all favored Biden! They’re going to cut his mic and deprive him of a crowd! How could Trump be so stupid!
Now we watch in awe as Vice President Harris runs the same playbook. On Tuesday evening, she dared Trump to "say it to my face" on the debate stage. A few days earlier, Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro said Trump was "scared" to meet Harris head to head.
Well, there is no man in America more confident in his ability to debate on national television than Donald Trump, and he is surely no more afraid of getting back on that stage than Ivan Drago would have been scared to get back in the ring after killing Apollo Creed.
Trump responded on Wednesday evening at a rally in Harrisburg, Pa. "Kamala Harris bragged, ‘I will proudly put my record against Donald Trump's any day of the week.’ Well, Kamala, let's go. Challenge accepted. Are you ready? Let's compare our record," he said.
We look forward to watching the showdown.
Given the fawning media coverage that has all but declared Harris the second coming of Barack Obama with the "raw talent of a once-in-a-generation leader," as Politico put it, Trump needs 90 minutes on stage with her to puncture that fiction. A debate is precisely the sort of extemporaneous format in which Harris has floundered. She hasn’t let go of her teleprompter since she became the de facto nominee and her adoring fans in the press aren’t going to force her to do so. She has done not a single television interview since being anointed as the presumptive Democratic nominee.
As with the Biden campaign, Team Harris has succeeded in locking in the debate it wanted.
He knows he stands to benefit. So until the two square off on stage, can we please dispense with the ludicrous pretense that Donald Trump is afraid of Kamala Harris? Trump is not invincible, but he’s a killer.