Donald Trump declared on Monday that he is finally ready to debate — President Joe Biden.
The former president was speaking to Dan Bongino on his podcast about Biden punting for the second year in a row on the traditional Super Bowl interview when he began talking about a debate, with Trump essentially challenging the president to immediate debate.
“He can’t do it, because he can’t talk. He can’t do anything. He’s ruining our country,” Trump said of the nixed Super Bowl interview.
WATCH: “I’ll take his spot at the Super Bowl!” — Donald Trump offers to do Biden’s interview instead of him. And he officially calls for a debate with the President, telling @dbongino: “I’d like to debate him now because we should debate. We should debate for the good of the… pic.twitter.com/DEaOYApVVu
— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) February 6, 2024
The nation’s 45th president then predicted that when all is said and done, Biden would not be the Democratic presidential nominee.
“And I don’t think he’s going to run — I don’t know if it’s donors or otherwise. It might be his family, it might be something,” Trump said. “I don’t think he’s going to run.”
“But I’d like to call for, immediately, a debate,” he continued. “I’d like to debate him now because we should debate. We should debate for the good of the country.”
As for the interview Biden ducked, Trump declared, “I’ll take his spot at the Super Bowl!”
Biden laughed the challenge off when told by a reporter.
“Donald Trump says he’s ready to debate you right now. Do you accept?” the reporter asked. “He wants to debate you ‘immediately.’”
In a response you couldn’t make up, Biden replied, “If I were him, I’d want him to debate me, too. He’s got nothing else to do.”
This is the LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD.
“Trump says he’s ready to debate you right now. Do you accept?”
BIDEN (confused and lost): “If I were him, I’d wanna debate me, too!” pic.twitter.com/kldZ0ORLnP
— Chad Prather (@WatchChad) February 6, 2024
Interestingly, the Biden campaign said back in December that it hasn’t given any thought to a potential general election debate against Trump and they will likely point to Trump skipping the GOP primary debates as justification — this being something supporters of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis warned about when Trump was dodging primary debates:
Biden doesn’t have to debate because he can just point to the fact Trump spent the entire GOP primary refusing to debate. We told you this would happen. https://t.co/nPkfOLWOqs
— Pedro L. Gonzalez (@emeriticus) February 6, 2024
DeSantis supporters were not impressed with Trump’s “Johnny-come-lately” challenge:
Oh, so now Trump wants to debate. But only against a feeble-minded dementia patient. Laughable.
— Florida Conservative (@FlaDogLover) February 6, 2024
Look at that. Trump found his debate balls now that his opponent is a mental invalid instead of Governor DeSantis. Shocking.
— Reno Ciccotta (@RenoCiccotta) February 6, 2024
Meanwhile, Nikki Haley’s campaign jumped at the opportunity to push Trump for a debate.
“We’re thrilled to see that Donald Trump has finally acknowledged the importance of debates,” Haley national spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas said in a statement. “Now it’s time for Trump to man up and agree to debate Nikki Haley. Nikki is ready to put her conservative record and vision for a strong and proud America up against Trump’s campaign of chaos and vendettas.”
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Tom Tillison grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills. Tillison also contributes to BizPac Review.
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