Fox News’ Harris Faulkner reminded her Outnumbered co-hosts that Donald Trump skipped all of the Republican primary debates he was invited to during the 2024 cycle during a Thursday afternoon segment in which the rest of her colleagues ripped President Joe Biden for not yet committing to debating the former president this fall.
“It feels like the media is setting the stage for Biden not to debate if he so chooses,” mused Kayleigh McEnany before allowing Charles Payne to weigh in.
Payne Googled the words “debate” and “democracy” and read from one of the results before concluding, “This is what, it’s what we’re all about, right? That’s the ethos of America. And the American public wants it and I think it should be a demerit against President Biden if he doesn’t go through with it.”
Faulkner then had her turn, and while she argued that skipping the debate presented a particular political risk to Biden because of his perceived weakness, she also made note of Trump’s hypocrisy.
“Neither man really put themselves in the best place to argue this,” asserted Faulkner. “Neither one of them debated going into the primary season and then at the front of the primary season no, Trump said no, Biden said no. Biden, I think, underestimated RFK Jr. He probably should have debated him.”
“So this is a problem for both,” she submitted.
Still, Emily Compagno followed that up by launching into a particularly forceful condemnation of Biden alone.
“It is part of the fabric of democracy. The House of Burgesses, you know, we all go there when we’re 12 years old. We take our trips to D.C. and, or at least in my public school district, we did. And we learn how debate is what enabled the founding fathers to have the best ideas, the most noble ideas, the most free-thinking ideas that were agreed upon to create our Constitution that came out of debate. Stirring, rousing, respectful debate,” said Compagno. “The fact that our president is like, ‘Well, only if he [Trump] agrees.’ What are you afraid of, sir?”
Watch above via Fox News.
