'Whining and losing': Trump's 'infantile' pre-debate spin wrecked by conservative

Conservative Matt Lewis is growing increasingly tired of former President Donald Trump's efforts to pre-spin a bad performance at Thursday's debate with President Joe Biden.

Writing in The Daily Beast, Lewis notes how Trump for years has portrayed himself as a victim of fraud committed by unseen nefarious forces, which gives him a ready-made excuse should he come up short in debates, elections or criminal trials.

"Trump and his minions are already laying the groundwork to suggest the debate was orchestrated to favor Biden," he argues. "Shocking, I know. While there’s still plenty of talk being circulated by Trump and his followers about Biden using caffeine (or some other performance-enhancing drug), they have contrived an even better excuse for a Trump loss by pre-blaming CNN and the debate moderators: Jake Tapper and Dana Bash."

Lewis notes that this is part of a broader pattern in which Trump has made false claims about assorted setbacks, most infamously during the 2020 election, when he refused to concede and even incited a violent riot at the United States Capitol in a last-ditch bid to retain power.

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What's more, Lewis finds it astonishing that Republicans have decided to stick with Trump even if they still buy his claims about a "stolen" election four years ago.

"It’s fair to say that (depending on your perspective) Trump was either a) a guy who lost an election, or b) a guy who allowed liberals to steal an election from him while he was president," writes Lewis. "These are really the only two options, and either option should have disqualified him in the minds of Republicans."

Or put another way, writes Lewis, "For a party that fetishizes fighting and winning, it’s unfathomable why they tolerate someone who does so much whining and losing."

Read the whole column here.