{"id":46146,"date":"2020-08-06T15:20:25","date_gmt":"2020-08-06T22:20:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=46146"},"modified":"2020-08-07T01:39:24","modified_gmt":"2020-08-07T08:39:24","slug":"trump-is-lying-about-and-trying-to-manipulate-the-presidential-debates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=46146","title":{"rendered":"Trump is Lying About &#8211; and Trying to Manipulate &#8211; the Presidential Debates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Apparently it hasn&#8217;t been enough for Donald Trump to <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=46097\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">rail maniacally about voting by mail<\/a><\/strong>. Or to <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=46089\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">attack his own medical experts<\/a><\/strong> for truthfully warning about the worsening coronavirus pandemic. Or to <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=46076\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">threaten to ban TikTok<\/a><\/strong>, a Twitter app that sometimes hosts messages that are critical of Trump. Or to <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=45911\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">whine incessantly about Fox News<\/a><\/strong> (aka State TV) when they aren&#8217;t sufficiently worshipful.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-fear-shadow.jpg\" alt=\"Trump Fear\" width=\"550\" height=\"296\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-41448\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Nope. It has not been nearly enough to satiate Trump&#8217;s massive and fragile ego. Now he is turning his wrath on the Commission on Presidential Debates, the independent, non-partisan organization that has been producing these general election encounters for almost fifty years. True to form, Trump cannot enter into any activity without angrily stomping his bone spurred feet until he gets the undeserved attention demanded by his addled-brain, malignant narcissism. Consequently, Trump took to his Twitter machine to bellow&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">How can voters be sending in Ballots starting, in some cases, one month before the First Presidential Debate. Move the First Debate up. A debate, to me, is a Public Service. Joe Biden and I owe it to the American People!<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump\/status\/1291339436727382016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 6, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>In order to give his imperious grumbling some additional oomph, Trump dispatched his equally schizoid personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, to fire off <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.donaldjtrump.com\/public-files\/press_assets\/giuliani-debate-letter-8-5-20-1.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">an urgent missive<\/a><\/strong> to the Commission with a set of utterly irrational, albeit self-serving, requests. However, it&#8217;s hard to take seriously a plea that opens and closes with a disparaging remark about Joe Biden finally being, <em>&#8220;available to leave his basement for the fall debates.&#8221;<\/em> Stay Classy, Rudy.<\/p>\n<p>Giuliani&#8217;s letter sought to change the terms of the already agreed upon debate schedule to add another meeting between Trump and Biden in early September because&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;By the time of the first presidential debate &#8230; as many as eight million Americans in 16 states will have already started voting. <em>[Giuliani claimed to want to]<\/em> avoid having millions of Americans disenfranchised by not being able to see and hear the two major party candidates debate before they have ballots in-hand.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>For Giuliani and Trump, or any Republican, to complain about disenfranchising voters after having gutted the Voting Rights Act, and worked so hard to eliminate early and weekend voting, close polling places, purge registration rolls, and draw preposterously gerrymandered districts, is Olympic-grade hypocrisy.<\/p>\n<p>There is, however, a notable logical fissure in Giuliani&#8217;s demands. The vast majority of the states don&#8217;t allow for any voting prior to the first debate, which will be held on September 29. And the few that do provide ballots before then, do not require that they be returned until election day. Which means any voter who receives a ballot can simply hold onto it until after any or all of the debates before making their decisions and mailing it in. Although it is best to return ballots as soon as possible to facilitate tabulation, it is not required.<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s more, voters this year are particularly committed to their presidential preference already. According to a recent <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/trump-biden-cbs-news-poll-analysis-enthusiasm-gap\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">poll by CBS News<\/a><\/strong>, most voters say that they <em>&#8220;strongly support their candidate&#8221;<\/em> (77% of Trump supporters \/ 74% of Biden supporters). Nine in ten say they would never consider the other candidate. So barring a catastrophic meltdown, the debates may not have much influence over the election outcome. And by all appearances, it&#8217;s Trump who would be <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=45969\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">most susceptible to the meltdown scenario<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to Trump&#8217;s ludicrous scheduling alterations, he also weighed in on who he thinks should moderate the debates. Note that the candidates have never selected the moderators for these debates in the past. And the reason for that is perfectly illustrated in Trump&#8217;s ultra-partisan list of preferred moderators. Out of 24, nine of them are from Fox News, including notorious Trump-fluffers like Maria Bartiromo. The list also includes some shameless bootlickers from the New York Post, Christian Broadcasting Network, and the Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n<p>The Commission sent Giuliani <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.debates.org\/2020\/08\/06\/cpd-statement-3\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">their response<\/a><\/strong> that can be summarized as a big <em>&#8220;NO&#8221;<\/em> on every count. Surely Trump will regard that as a personal slight and throw a Twitter tantrum casting himself as the victim of a <em>&#8220;Deep State&#8221;<\/em> plot to destroy him. Because, sadly, that&#8217;s what we&#8217;ve all come to expect from the Crybaby-in-Chief. But his infantile tactics won&#8217;t help him get his way this time. And his well-founded fear of being humiliated is driving him to ever more deranged outbursts, such as&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Trump is so DESPERATE &amp; AFRAID that he&#39;s accusing Biden (who is Catholic) of being &quot;against god.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Is there anyone who still is NOT convinced that Trump is the Antichrist?<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/TKaXWdrhrd\">pic.twitter.com\/TKaXWdrhrd<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; News Corpse (@NewsCorpse) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NewsCorpse\/status\/1291504443796537344?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 6, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><strong>How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B00QSSMOES\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;creativeASIN=B00QSSMOES&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=newscorpsecom-20&#038;linkId=TLI6JC2OYE22MUTS\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.<\/a><br \/>\nAvailable now at Amazon.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Apparently it hasn&#8217;t been enough for Donald Trump to rail maniacally about voting by mail. Or to attack his own medical experts for truthfully warning about the worsening coronavirus pandemic. Or to threaten to ban TikTok, a Twitter app that sometimes hosts messages that are critical of Trump. Or to whine incessantly about Fox News [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[152,1,1200,8,16],"tags":[554,1140,33,377,58],"class_list":["post-46146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-election","category-general","category-politics","category-propaganda","category-wankery","tag-donald-trump","tag-election","tag-fox-news","tag-joe-biden","tag-rudy-giuliani"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-fear-shadow.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-c0i","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":60316,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=60316","url_meta":{"origin":46146,"position":0},"title":"OOPS: Fox News Host Spills that Trump Couldn&#8217;t Answer Questions About &#8216;Ensuring&#8217; Fair Elections","author":"Mark NC","date":"2\/26\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"In November of 2020, Joe Biden won a historic election wherein he defeated an incumbent who maligned Biden as a mentally impaired, radical leftist who was stealing the election. So Donald Trump was, in effect, conceding that, despite his being president, he couldn't stop someone he regarded as a senile\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Election&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"Donald Trump, Fox News","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-foxnews-curtains.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-foxnews-curtains.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-foxnews-curtains.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":52662,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=52662","url_meta":{"origin":46146,"position":1},"title":"Texts Show Sean Hannity Was Taking Orders From Trump Team to Steal the Election","author":"Mark NC","date":"4\/25\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"For the past sixteen months Donald Trump has been viscerally obsessed with having decisively lost the presidency to Joe Biden. And his all-consuming humiliation has resulted in a relentless fit of rage as he desperately crusades to convince his cult followers that the election was \"rigged\" and \"stolen\" from him.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Election&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"Donald Trump Sean Hannity","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-hannity-mini-e1549743865260.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-hannity-mini-e1549743865260.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-hannity-mini-e1549743865260.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":53430,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=53430","url_meta":{"origin":46146,"position":2},"title":"Judge Rules that Fox News Acted With &#8216;Actual Malice&#8217; By Spreading Trump&#8217;s Election Fraud Lies","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/22\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The hearings of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th insurrection incited by Donald Trump have been effectively exposing the role of Trump and his confederates in politics and the press. It is now an inescapable fact that they knew that their attempts to undermine democracy and overturn the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Election&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"Donald Trump, Fox News, Lies","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-baby-foxnews-lies.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-baby-foxnews-lies.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-baby-foxnews-lies.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":31699,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=31699","url_meta":{"origin":46146,"position":3},"title":"Fox News Just Gift-Wrapped Their Primetime Schedule And Gave It To Donald Trump","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/28\/2016","format":false,"excerpt":"It won't surprise anyone to learn that Fox News has jumped aboard the Donald Trump bandwagon in a big way. His most ardent supporters are featured regularly to exalt the presumptuous Republican presidential nominee. Those supporters include the anchors of Fox's most watched programs in primetime. This past week Fox\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Election&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"Trump News Channel","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-news-channel-e1464477994448.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-news-channel-e1464477994448.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-news-channel-e1464477994448.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":47451,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=47451","url_meta":{"origin":46146,"position":4},"title":"Trump On Losing to Biden: &#8216;Maybe I&#8217;ll Have to Leave the Country&#8217;","author":"Mark NC","date":"11\/7\/2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The dystopian era of Donald Trump has come to a predictably graceless but welcome close. Joe Biden has officially been projected to be the next President of the United States. Nevertheless, Trump is still declining to concede, and Fox News is refusing to address Biden as President-Elect. All of this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Election&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"Donald Trump","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-loser-emoji-e1571261064815.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-loser-emoji-e1571261064815.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-loser-emoji-e1571261064815.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":46845,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=46845","url_meta":{"origin":46146,"position":5},"title":"Trump Whines that Chris Wallace of Fox News is &#8216;Controlled By the Radical Left&#8217;","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/24\/2020","format":false,"excerpt":"As Election Day draws nearer, Donald Trump continues to descend into a psychotic abyss that exhibits the frantic tangle of his fear and desperation. It's become serious enough that the American people can't help but have noticed. Much of the evidence of his mental infirmity is revealed in his increasingly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Election&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"Donald Trump, Fox News, Fake","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-fake-news-channel.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-fake-news-channel.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-fake-news-channel.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46146"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46157,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46146\/revisions\/46157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}