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- Despite the objections of his advisers, President Donald Trump is "tentatively" planning on live-tweeting next week’s Democratic primary debates, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday morning.
- Trump’s loves using Twitter to comment on current events in real-time and attack his detractors, but advisers told the Journal they’re concerned Trump live-tweeting the event could backfire by giving the Democrats even more attention.
- In recent weeks, Trump has ramped up his attacks on the many 2020 contenders and enjoys pitting them against each other, especially when it comes to former Vice President Joe Biden.
- The 20 Democratic candidates who qualified for the first round of debates will be evenly split between June 26 and June 27 to debate, NBC announced last week.
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Despite the objections of his advisers, President Donald Trump is "tentatively" planning on live-tweeting next week’s Democratic primary debates, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday morning.
While advisers and people close to Trump noted to the Journal that Trump could change his mind and change course, he’s currently planning on watching and tweeting during the debates, which will take place in Miami, Florida on June 26 and 27.
Trump himself is set to formally kick off his re-election campaign with a boisterous rally in Orlando, Florida on the evening of June 18.
Despite Trump’s love of Twitter to comment on current events in real-time and attack his detractors, advisers told the Journal they’re concerned Trump live-tweeting the event could backfire, arguing "there was an advantage in letting potential challengers attack one another without distraction," and Trump’s attacks could end up playing into the Democrats’ hands by drawing more attention to the debates, according to the Journal.
In recent weeks, Trump has ramped up his attacks on the many 2020 contenders and enjoys pitting them against each other, especially when it comes to former Vice President Joe Biden, whom early polling suggests could be Trump’s most formidable foe in a general election match-up.
In Friday remarks to reporters on the White House’s South Lawn, Trump blasted Biden as "a dummy," "mentally weak," and "1% Joe," an insulting reference to Biden’s poor past performance in his 1988 and 2008 presidential runs.
"I heard Biden, who is a loser — I mean, look, Joe never got more than 1%, except Obama took him off the trash heap. Now it looks like he is failing. It looks like his friends from the left are going to overtake him pretty soon," Trump said.
The 20 Democratic candidates who qualified for the first round of debates will be evenly split between the two nights, NBC announced last week.
Debating on June 26 will be Sen. Cory Booker, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, former Rep. John Delaney, Gov. Jay Inslee, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, former HUD Secretary Julián Castro, Rep. Tim Ryan, and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.
And on June 27, Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Kamala Harris, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Michael Bennet, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Marianne Williamson, Rep. Eric Swalwell, Former Gov. John Hickenlooper, and Andrew Yang will take the stage.
Read more:
A massive 70% of Democratic primary voters say they’ll be watching the first debates this month
See Also:
- Amy Klobuchar’s first 100 days as president would include massive rollbacks of Trump’s policies
- ‘Boy Bye’: The Democratic National Committee tried to use a Beyoncé reference to tell off Trump and the internet isn’t having it
- Democratic voters think Pete Buttigieg is more ‘electable’ than most of the senators running for president in 2020, according to a new poll
Source: Business Insider – gpanetta@businessinsider.com (Grace Panetta)