It is “smart” for former President Donald Trump to debate Vice President Kamala Harris and showcase the contrast between the two — as Trump performs well, feeding off the energy of crowds — and Harris is “incredibly bad” unscripted, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) told Breitbart News Saturday, reacting to the news of Trump agreeing to a Fox News debate.
Trump made the announcement on Truth Social, agreeing to a Fox News debate with Harris on Wednesday, September 4, with a “FULL ARENA AUDIENCE.”
“Look, I think it’s great,” Vance said, addressing the Harris campaign’s recent made-up narrative, asserting over the last several days that Trump was too afraid to debate Harris.
“The Kamala campaign has been saying for a long time that President Trump is afraid to debate Kamala Harris, which, of course, is absurd because the last time he debated their nominee that nominee withdrew two weeks later,” Vance said, explaining that Trump simply said he would not do a debate prior to the Democratic National Convention in case Democrats decide to switch their nominee again.
“Like why debate people who may not even be the nominee?” Vance said.
“What’s great about this, so Matt, is he’s basically saying, ‘Look, this is after … the Democratic National Convention, so I’m going to debate,’ and he’s also, I think, throwing down a gauntlet of he was willing to go to CNN, which is far more hostile to him than any network would be to Kamala Harris,” he said.
“And why don’t, you know, Kamala Harris, why don’t you come in and agree to a debate?” Vance asked, previewing issues for Harris.
“The thing that we’ve learned about Kamala, Matt, over the last four years is she’s incredibly bad if she’s not scripted, right? She’s fine if you put her in front of the teleprompter and tell her what to say. But [when] she actually has to answer questions based purely on her own knowledge and interest in policy, then it becomes a bit of a disaster,” the senator said.
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Breitbart · Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) – August 3, 2024“Final point I’ll make about this matter why I think it’s so smart for the president to do this is he really feeds off of human beings, which is like natural [and] normal for a political leader, you know,” he stated. “You’re supposed to lead people, and to lead people, you actually have to sort of like people and engage with them.”
“Well, to him having a crowd for this debate, I think is really important because it will show his natural leadership ability. And it also shows, frankly, that people are kind of turned off by Kamala Harris. So I think it’s good. Hopefully it happens, and hopefully, Kamala Harris agrees to it,” Vance said, adding, “If she doesn’t, then clearly she’s the one who’s afraid to debate.”
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