'Grade-A Coward': Columnist predicts Trump will flee debate stage — if he shows up at all

Former President Donald Trump will most probably flee the debate stage Thursday night — if he makes an appearance at all, a USA Today columnist argued Wednesday.

Trump is slated to face President Joe Biden in a closed-set CNN debate moderated by Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, which columnist Rex Huppke believes is likely scaring the pants off the former president.

"There’s a strong chance the former president chickens out and runs to the safety of a rally where he can comfortably air his myriad grievances and extract money from his gullible fans," Huppke writes.

"The second possibility is Trump shows up to the debate and then, after having his microphone cut off a couple of times or hearing a question about his own behavior that he considers unfair, storms off the stage."

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To back his "grade-a coward" claim, Huppke points to Trump's history of ducking out of debates — specifically his refusal to do a virtual debate in 2020 and then blowing off all the GOP presidential primary debates this campaign season.

Huppke also notes Republicans have already begun claiming the debate will be rigged.

Given the circumstances — Huppke lays out three possible scenarios.

"The first, as mentioned before, is Trump turns tail and runs away from the debate, screaming about how it’s unfair and he’s treated so horribly and everyone is out to get him," he writes. "A WHAAAAAAAAmbulance is dispatched to pick him up and deliver him to a nearby MAGA rally, where he delivers a record-breaking two continuous hours of woe-is-me-ing."

The second scenario has Trump fleeing and the third predicts "noise and chaos and lies" — or that he stays.

"The third possibility is Trump shows up and goes through the whole debate, acting like the oafish boor he is, hollering when his mic is off, making up fact-free nonsense about 'rigged elections' and a 'Biden crime wave' and whatever else passes through his spider-filled brain," Huppke concludes.

"My money is on him fleeing like the coward he has repeatedly shown himself to be."