HAHA! Kamala MOCKS Trump For SKIPPING DEBATE: "YOU ARE A COWARD"

turning now to the 2024 presidential race and a new debate over a debate former president Trump and vice president Harris are scheduled to go head-to-head on September the 10th on ABC but a new social media post from Trump and reported concerns over the rules by the Harris campaign is now casting doubts on whether it's going to happen at all joining us now NBC News senior White House correspondent Gabe Gutierrez NBC's Garrett H they have the latest on the Trump Vance campaign so Garrett what exactly did Trump say about the debate whether it's going to happen or not well look he this is in an overnight truth social Post in which he largely complained about ABC News the host of that debate he called them fake news ABC complained about several correspondents by name uh some whom are participating some who are probably not and sort of Wonders aloud why would I do the debate against KL Harris on that Network he also uh says sort of half correctly that Harris had turned down debate offers on other networks some of those are still pending the bottom line here Jose this reads to me like Donald Trump essentially working the refs ahead of this debate kind of complaining about the coverage he gets from that Network the personalities he doesn't like as a way to perhaps lower expectations for himself and muddy the waters about questions that might be asked and how his performance might be handled if and when he does show up for that debate on the 10th so uh Gabe meanwhile what is the Harris campaign concern well uh Jose separate from that truth social post overnight the Harris campaign is now raising issu issues about the rules for this debate and the Trump campaign uh is responding so essentially the the Harris campaign now says that it wants hot mics during the entire debate and Jose you'll remember that uh is remarkable because a couple of uh months ago um the Biden team actually did not want hot mics during the debate they wanted muted mics when the other candidate was speaking now this is a statement from uh the Harris campaign it says in part the vice president is ready to deal with Trump's constant lies and interruptions in real time Trump should stop hiding behind the mute button now uh the Trump campaign is uh firing back and saying that it is the Harris team which is asking for more rule changes including um SE sitting down during the de the debate and also referring to notes and also opening statements as well now I just spoke with someone from the Harris team who denies those rule changes but as Garrett mentioned this seems to be an ongoing dispute and right now it's anybody's guess uh whether you know this debate will happen on September 10th it appears you know both both campaigns haven't said yet that they're backing away officially but it does appear that former president Trump is trying to work the Reps um but some of that is I'm told it's it's debate prep because that debate is just around the horizon or maybe it's not well we'll see we'll get into that in just a moment so that was the vice president's schedule for the week here's what Trump is doing he's gonna be barnstorming he and his campaign are barnstorming the Midwest this week the former president will be in Michigan later today while Senator JD Vance will be in the Great Lake State on Tuesday Trump will head back to Michigan on Thursday before heading to Wisconsin that night the former president will end the week with a trip to Pennsylvania on Friday but as cadd just hinted Trump is suggesting that he may back out of next month's debate with the Vice President in a truth social post late last night Trump railed against ABC News which is the host of the September 10th debate in Philadelphia accusing the network of being biased against him he wrote this why would I do the debate against KLA Harris on that Network adding they've got a lot of questions to answer stay tuned it's the stay tuned isn't it it's one of his goto It's You Know The Apprentice all over again yeah building the next week we'll see if we debate so in May of course let's remember Trump agreed to two debates with an unspecified Democratic opponent there's no name listed there but that was when President Jo Biden of course was still the party's presumptive nominee so let's bring into the conversation here columnist and Associate editor for the Washington Post David Ignatius as well as NBC News Capitol Hill correspondent Ali Vitali who just saw on way too early so David let's get your take to start um with this suggestion from the former president that well maybe I won't do that debate after all there's been a lot of chatter in Trump World that he is not eager to to square off with the vice president we know that he has had sometimes has trouble with taking questions from from women from powerful women we've seen that throughout his political career but she's not just a powerful woman she's a prosecutor and the idea of a prosecutor versus a convicted felon seems to be one that he's not particularly excited about so I think what we've seen in the days before the convention and certainly after is that Trump just doesn't know how to deal with KLA Harris he doesn't know how to pigeon hole her his usual language of belittlement uh derision isn't working there is in the country this sense I think of we've been relieved from uh an election that people were dreading between two candidates run before an acrimonious nasty convention a sense of the the country locked with these these two older older Americans and then suddenly that there was a a convention that really was a joyous event and that said we've turned a page and Trum Trump can't figure out how to turn his own page uh I think as he as he plans for the the debate he has to appreciate that she is charismatic and Charming on television in a way that he fancies he is that that the camera loves kamla Harris uh she she's she's learned in her the Cadence of her speeches the way she presents herself to to be a a formidable TV presence Donald Trump knows TV he's smart enough to know he's got a problem here he hasn't figured it out and we of course saw in the Atlanta debate that was sort of the downfall of President Biden's uh campaign but Ally this will be a different one because it also will highlight the age issue which now is an advantage to Democrats as Harris is nearly two decades younger than Trump but if the polls are right and we've been expressing a little skepticism here this morning uh Harris is winning by a little but winning so therefore doesn't Trump need this debate to try to change momentum he does and candidly I share Caddy's polling PTSD after 2016 I think we're not alone in that and there's reason to be skeptical it's also why you saw the vice president get off stage at the DNC and when she passed some of our colleagues backstage she immediately said well now we have more work to do and that's my understanding of the mood within her Camp right now and the mood within the larger Democratic establishment which is they learned the lessons of 2016 they're not going to take Positive Vibes and a positive attitude for granted they are still going to get on the ground and make sure that there are people knocking doors getting out the vote it's why I'm so interested yes in the funding fundraising numbers but also in the ways that they have seen on the ground in States like Pennsylvania in States like Georgia volunteers who have never volunteered before signing up to do shifts getting on phone Banks doing text messages that's the actual stuff that's going to be the meat and potatoes of turning this energy into actual tangible votes but then and John Allen and I were just talking about the stakes of the debate and how much things have changed on way too early this idea that in the last debate it was Biden who had so much to prove on his age on his Acuity trying to assuage those concerns which we know ultimately were not assuaged to the point where he is now no longer the nominee those are now the things that Trump has to work towards as he waivers on whether or not he's going to get on this debate stage I think we all knew that he would try to play this will he or won't he game in terms of this September 10th debate now that he's facing kamla Harris the landscape has completely shifted against him and he now has to prove against questions of his age his accuity his viability while also not veering into what he often does which is sexist and racist attacks that don't earn him any new votes uh but very interesting back and forth here in the final I me that that Fon statement is clearly written to get a rise out of Donald Trump himself right yeah I mean after this summer let no one ever say again the debates do not matter which is why which is why you are having this fight over these small details what's also really interesting is not just that she's used the hot mic to great effect in the past but also you have to remember Joe Biden wanted the mute button for the first debate they set those rules for that first debate and because they were because they didn't want a repeat of the first debate from 2020 when Trump just sort of ranted and raved so this was the The Joe Biden's idea the problem was that then the Trump campaign was like okay we're actually going to like make him as as valon in uh indicated disciplined and it actually made him seem more sober than he often comes across yeah what do you think I mean look when uh kamla took over the ticket though they they're trying to have it both ways remember when K took over the ticket they told the Trump command we've already agreed to the ABC debate on September 10th and they were like saying well we can renegotiate a little bit on what the debate is now they're flipping it and saying well just because you agreed to the debate didn't doesn't mean we agreed to the rules look this she wants the hot mic moment because what she's had if you remember the first debate with Joe Biden the I'm speaking she loves loves to create these little memeable moments that you know are kind based off stock lines that she's practiced and kind of her team is prepared for they already the t-shirts printed up so she's trying to draw out Trump with some of this stuff yeah at the end of the day though does this really matter does at they when they go to debate that's what I mean the American people deserve a debate they deserve to hear the issues being fought to have a discussion so I don't think at the end of the day this matters I think it's just more political Insider baseball stuff it's fun to talk about all yes what we're going to talk about the next week but at the end of the day it really doesn't matter I think the important thing is to have a debate and them have a discussion about the issues so we're getting Fallout from Donald Trump's recent cowardly move and not only do we know more details about it like why he's planning to skip town and avoid the debate but also kamla responding basically making it clear that Donald is a coward that he's trying to use media being critical of his far-right agenda as bias when it's just decent reporting uh we also know that if anything the media has been biased towards helping Trump seemingly by by by by making up fake scandals around walls and Harris and all of that but but also um that the the rules as they would be set up would simply benefit Donald Trump to make him artificially look um less insane to be charitable right that that they're trying to set up a system that would make him look more presidential and less criminal than he actually is but here's the thing all of this really demonstrates that Harris is the one willing to debate Harris has been the most consistent on this look I understand it is a weird election we've not really seen anything like this in modern history where you know uh two candidates debated and then one candidate is no longer in the race and then the new candidate although it was that candidate's vice president uh comes in to step in uh but here's the thing the debate was scheduled and K has been very clear the debate was not really Biden versus Trump scheduled the debate was the Republican nominee for president whoever that may be versus the Democratic nominee for president whoever that may be right and that didn't change it's still scheduled to be the Republican nominee versus the Democratic nominee and Harris has been clear from the start we may negotiate other debates but for now we have this one scheduled debate I will be there I will follow the rules and Donald can show up if he wants so Harris is not only mocking Trump she's being very clear with the voters and importantly that she's following the agreed upon schedule and that if he doesn't show up he's the one breaking it now I think if he doesn't show kala should go and give a speech and maybe do a town hall style event just to rub the salt into the wound but for now she's playing her cards perfectly