'Remarkable show of weakness': Trump buried for 'backpedaling' on debating Kamala Harris

Donald Trump was subjected to widespread ridicule after apparently backing out of a debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.

The former president insisted earlier this week, after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race, that he wanted to go head-to-head with Harris, but his campaign announced Thursday that the scheduled September event hosted by ABC News would be put on hold until the Democratic Party formally chose a nominee.

The party's convention is next month.

“I have agreed to the previously agreed upon Sept. 10 debate, he agreed to that previously,” Harris said Thursday. “Now it appears he’s backpedaling. But I’m ready. And I think that the voters deserve to see the split screen that exists in this race on a debate stage and so, I’m ready. Let’s go.”

Later that day, Trump's team announced he was backing out.

Others joined the pile-on Friday.

"Has a presidential nominee ever agreed to a debate, then pulled out?" said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a rumored vice presidential candidate. "Remarkable show of weakness here."

"Trump’s team is afraid to put him on the debate stage against Kamala Harris for a number of reasons," said former GOP congressman Denver Riggleman. "The primary reason is that he’s non compos mentis. Second reason is that Donald will be dragged across America by Kamala for his treatment and ideas about women."

"Donald Trump is too old and weak to debate Kamala Harris," said Dan Pfeiffer, a former Barack Obama campaign staffer and co-host of Pod Save America.

Read also: Fox News invites Kamala Harris to presidential debate at urging of Donald Trump

"I think people are underestimating how much of the momentum shift and public impression was driven by Trump, right out of the gate, saying he was pulling out of the debate with Harris," said Josh Marshall, founder and editor-in-chief of Talking Points Memo. "Prez elections are a series of performative moments about power. At critical moment he showed weakness and fear."

"For Trump, the legal and political are now inseparable. Is Trump’s refusal to schedule the next debate really about Harris not yet obtaining the nomination?" said Lisa Rubin, legal analyst for MSNBC. "Or does it reflect the understanding his NY conviction likely will stick (at least through November), reinforcing the prosecutor vs. criminal frame that could benefit her?"

"Remember how Trump used Obama as an excuse not to debate Kamala ('There is a strong sense by many in the Democrat Party - namely Barack Hussein Obama - that Kamala Harris is a Marxist fraud who cannot beat President Trump, and they are still holding out for someone 'better.')?" said MSNBC contributor Bryan Tyler Cohen. "Now that Obama endorsed Kamala, will Trump finally agree to debate Kamala, or was that just a desperate excuse he cooked up to cover for the fact that he's too chickenshit to get on stage with her?

"Trump was afraid to debate @NikkiHaley after she destroyed her rivals in the R debates," posted the X account for the Haley Voters for Harris PAC. "Now he’s afraid to debate @KamalaHarris with a horrible excuse about Obama. We see a pattern."