Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he thinks former President Trump will win the presidential debate scheduled for Thursday.
“I predict Trump will win, because I think Donald Trump deserves the award for being the greatest debater in modern American history, probably since Lincoln Douglas.” Kennedy said in an interview. The video, posted to YouTube by TV host Piers Morgan on Tuesday, appears to be a reference to the historic debate between President Lincoln and Sen. Stephen Douglas (D-Ill.).
Kennedy said his conclusion that Trump would win the debates comes from watching Trump “blow away 16 Republicans” and easily defeat them in the debates, seemingly referencing the 2016 Republican primary season. He also said Trump is “very entertaining to watch” because of his “all of these extraordinary techniques.”
“I don’t think it’s possible for President Biden to beat him in a debate,” Kennedy continued.
Biden and Trump are scheduled to debate on CNN in Atlanta on Thursday night. Trump acknowledged that he “interrupted Biden too much” in the first 2020 debate, a point New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman made last week. Biden’s performance there was particularly widely panned.
“Trump has told people multiple times that he was aware that he interrupted too frequently in the first debate with Biden in 2020, and I recently rewatched the debate and was really shocked,” Haberman said.
“We were all talking about it at the time, and Biden was barely able to say a word and just smiling the whole time,” Haberman added.
Kennedy expressed his displeasure last week after CNN announced that Thursday’s debate would be just between Biden and Trump.
“President Biden and President Trump do not want me on the debate stage, and CNN illegally agreed to their demands,” Kennedy said in a statement through his campaign. “President Biden and President Trump’s decision to exclude me from the debate is undemocratic, un-American and cowardly.”
Hill has reached out to the Trump and Biden campaigns.
