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Donald Trump is already teeing up an excuse for why JD Vance might lose the vice presidential debate against Tim Walz.
Appearing on Fox Nation on Monday, the Republican presidential candidate baselessly claimed to his former 2016 campaign manager Kellyanne Conway that the showdown is already “rigged” against his running mate – claiming that he would also “love to have two or three more debates” against Kamala Harris but won’t for this reason.
“I would love to have two or three more debates, I like it, I enjoyed it,” Trump told Conway, also his former adviser.
“But they’re so rigged and so stacked. You’ll see it tomorrow with JD, it’ll be stacked.”
It is a line Trump has been spouting ever since his presidential debate against Harris on September 10 – and Trump now appears to be laying the foundations for Vance to use the same grievance if Walz comes out on top.
Without elaborating or explaining his reasoning for the claims, Trump then resorted to personal attacks on the Minnesota governor.
“He’s going up against a moron, a total moron,” he said. “How she picked him is unbelievable. I think it’s a big factor. There’s something wrong with that guy. He’s sick.”
Critics, allies and viewers all agreed Trump gave a poor performance against Harris in their debate.
Longtime GOP pollster Frank Luntz said at the time it came “very close” to the worst debate performance he had ever seen.
“It was a pretty negative performance – pretty pessimistic, cynical, contemptuous,” Luntz said on Piers Morgan Uncensored. “And I think that this will cost him.”
That night, Trump made the unusual move to appear on the spin room floor as soon as it wrapped to complain to reporters it was “rigged” against him.
Trump has since blamed ABC moderators for fact-checking him and has lambasted the network.
After trading blows on the campaign trail, tonight will mark the first time Walz and Vance come face to face in this presidential election. While vice presidential debates have generally not been considered consequential in elections, tonight’s could be different.
About 75 percent of Americans are planning to watch the debate, according to polling from Prolific for The Independent, while two-thirds of Democrats believe the vice presidential candidate has a significant impact on the overall presidential ticket.
Six former vice presidents have gone on to become president, while 19 have run for the top spot, meaning that tonight’s debate could well showcase a future presidential candidate.
The most recent VP-to-president pipeline success story is President Joe Biden, who enjoyed a close public relationship with Barack Obama during the two terms he spent as his right-hand man.
Viewers can watch the debate tonight at 9pm ET on CBS News, its affiliate stations, the network’s app, CBSNews.com, Paramount+, and YouTube.
