Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) predicted that Vice-President Kamala Harris will emerge the winner of the debates, whether Donald Trump shows up or not.
Trump suggested over the weekend that he might back out of the scheduled ABC News debate on Sept. 10 with Harris because he said the network is hostile toward Republicans.
On MSNBC Monday, Crockett said she does not expect the former president to participate in the debate.
“But if he does show up, he is about to get his butt handed to him, so I’m here for it either way,” Crockett said. “He can go and cower in a corner, or he can show up and be lit on fire either way, I’m good.”
Trump had initially agreed to two debates against President Joe Biden, but since Harris replaced the president at the top of the Democratic ticket Trump has been suggesting that he might not take the stage at all.
Adding new doubts about whether the Sept. 10 debate will go on as scheduled is a disagreement about muting microphones during the event.
The Trump campaign suggested that they adopt the same rules as the June debate on CNN with President Biden, including muting each candidate’s microphone when it’s not their turn to speak.
Harris campaign, however, has noted it was not the party that agreed to those rules and has pushed for microphones to be left open at all times.
Trump sided with the Harris campaign on the issue, telling reporters that he’d rather have microphones on during the entire debate.
“We agreed to the same rules. I don’t know — doesn’t matter to me. I’d rather have it probably on, but the agreement was that it would be the same as it was last time. In that case, it was muted,” he said.
On MSNBC, Crockett said Republicans want nothing more than Trump to “shut up” and “go play golf.”
“Every time he opens his mouth, you know, the truth comes out, and the truth is not a pretty thing. The truth is tied to the agenda of Project 2025. The truth is tied to his history as it relates to discriminating against people of color when it came to housing, or when it came down to how he wanted the Central Park Five hung,” she said.
“The truth only hurts him,” Crockett continued. “So yeah, they want him to shut up and allow them to kind of continue on, so that they can continue to deceive people into believing that these two candidates both have something wonderful to offer this country when we know that there’s only one candidate that is qualified and only one candidate that is interested in moving our country forward instead of moving us back to the Jim Crow era of the 1950s and 60s.”
