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Former President Donald J. Trump has already rejected an invitation to CNN’s pre-election debate, but an old friend says it’s only a matter of time until he caves.

Twice-failed Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie is back in his comfort zone as an ABC News pundit and on Sunday’s edition of “This Week” the hot topic was the proposed rematch between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris which the GOP nominee has already rejected.

“You said Donald Trump would do it if he needed to do it,” asked anchor George Stephanopoulos. “Does that dynamic still hold?”

“Yes, these debate decisions, George, are tactical, they’re not philosophical, they’re tactical,” Christie responded, citing the sketchy mainstream polls showing Harris either even with or tied with the former president. “And if the polls continue to move a bit away from Trump, you know how much he focuses on that, and he’s gonna need something to change it and in today’s media landscape, absent a big mistake by one or the other, this is the only way.”

“But has his confidence been shaken after the first debate?” Stephanopoulos asked.

“Come on, his confidence shaken? No. He will convince himself that if she gets in the ring with him again, that he’ll knock her out, that will be his mindset,” Christie responded. Now, whether he’ll do the work that’s gonna be necessary to be prepared which he clearly did not do the last time is a completely open question.”

“But I’ll say this, he needs it. I think she agreed to the CNN debate because she knows that will be the least agreeable venue for him. So she may be able to get herself out of this and not debate again by saying, “No, CNN or nothing,” and then he’s going to have to make that judgment. I think he’ll eventually capitulate,” the former New Jersey governor predicted.

It was pure goading on the former ABC News gasbag’s part, hoping to prod Trump onto another debate stage where the table is severely tilted against him.

During his doomed presidential run, Christie bet big that he’d be able to lure his former political ally into a nationally televised trap, using his bombast to torpedo his campaign, but it didn’t work when Trump jumped out to a huge early lead based on his name recognition and past experience and declined to participate in debates where every also-ran would spend their time attacking him.

The sudden request for a debate came out of the blue only two days after Harris’ big town hall event with Oprah Winfrey didn’t seem to move the needle the way that her handlers believed it would and with just over six weeks to go, desperation is setting in.

Not that any network can be more unfair to Trump than Christie’s employer was when he was constantly undermined by moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis, but if anyone can do it, it’s CNN.

And that is what Trump’s adversaries are counting on, a set-up with no time to reverse what the Jake Tapper-Dana Bash CNN tag team will do to him just before the election.

“The problem with another debate is that it’s just too late. Voting has already started. She’s had her chance to do it with Fox. You know, Fox invited us on, and I waited and waited, and they turned it down,” Trump told the crowd at a North Carolina rally on Saturday. “They turned it down. But now she wants to do a debate right before the election with CNN because she’s losing badly.”

Chris Donaldson
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