
Longtime Democrat strategist James Carville suggested last week that contrary to popular belief, it is not President Joe Biden who is likely to bail on the upcoming presidential debates. Instead, he believes it will be Biden’s Republican challenger Donald Trump who is a no-show.
Biden and Trump are set to face off on Thursday, June 27 in a debate hosted by CNN and moderated by anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.
A second debate hosted by ABC News is scheduled for September 10.
Under the conditions requested by the Biden campaign, the debates are to be held in a studio without a live audience.
In an appearance on MSNBC last Monday, Carville was asked by anchor Ari Melber what he expected in the CNN debate.
Carville said that if he wanted to lay a bet on the June 27 debate, he would put “even money” on Donald Trump not showing up.
He suggested that Trump might wait until the day of the debate to decide whether he will attend.
Carville noted that Trump said he would testify in his hush money trial but never did and suggested that Trump was unable to “put on a defense.”
Carville said if Trump did decide to show up for the debate, he “wouldn’t be shocked,” but added that he would take even money that Trump would be a “no-show.”
Melber also asked Carville if he thought it was a smart call by the Biden campaign to decide not to participate in the debates scheduled by the Commission on Presidential Debates so the campaign could “get the terms they wanted.”
Carville said that it would depend on whether the debate happens and if Biden does well. He said if Biden does ace the debate, then it would have been worth it. However, if he does not, then the Biden campaign made a mistake.
Carville admitted that he was happy that the campaigns were going directly to the networks but conceded that holding a debate this early rather than waiting until the fall was “unusual.”
He said the Biden campaign likely had “good people prepping the president” to get him ready for Thursday’s face-off and again suggested that it was unlikely Trump would show up.