Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have only had one presidential debate, which most observers agreed was won by the Democrat. Donald Trump appears to be the only person who disagrees.
Trump has since refused to debate Harris again, even with Harris agreeing to participate in an October 23 debate on October 23. And now, the Democratic National Committee is launching a campaign to use that against him.
According to NBC News, the DNC will launch a series of billboards, both static and mobile, calling Trump a “chicken” for refusing to debate his opponent. The first billboard will appear Monday near Trump’s rally in India, Pa.
“There’s no debate: Donald Trump’s a chicken,” the billboards will say:
#ChickenTrump there’s no debate: Donald Trump’s a chicken pic.twitter.com/iAVGf0PYFh
— TheSaltyDogg (@TheSaltyDogg) September 23, 2024
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NBC News says the original plan was for “staffers dressed in chicken suits to appear” at the rally, but the DNC thought better of that and went with the billboards instead. However, a pro-Harris student group at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania will send “inflatable chickens” to the rally.
Inflatable Trump chickens have appeared in the past, including at the White House in 2017, when Trump was president:
The cost of #TrumpChicken: $1,300.
The cost of seeing it outside the White House: priceless. pic.twitter.com/SyARthjiCY
— AJ+ (@ajplus) August 9, 2017
This isn’t even the first animal-related insult related to Trump refusing to debate this election cycle.
Trump did not participate in any of this year’s Republican primary debates, and in one of them, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Trump ally-turned-enemy, accused Trump of “ducking” the debates, calling him “Donald Duck.” The joke was widely panned, leading to Christie’s exist from the race not long after, but the former governor seemed pleased with himself about the joke.
I’ve worked in comedy for many years and have never been as proud of a joke as Chris Christie was of that “Donald Duck” line. pic.twitter.com/u62tsdzbdb
— Tim Duffy™ (@TimDuffy) November 6, 2023
Will the “chicken” billboards get into Trump’s head, and possibly even convince him to debate Harris again after all? That remains to be seen. But one columnist believes that Trump will eventually give in.
“This campaign has been terrifying, but this moment is delicious. We need to enjoy it. We deserve this,” the Newark Star Ledger’s Tom Moran wrote this week. “The beauty of it is that this campaign must driving Trump nuts. The macho man is being called out to fight by a woman. How long can he stand it? Can she goad him into taking this bait? Will we have another debate after all in October?”
None other than Chris Christie said the same thing on ABC this weekend.
“If the polls continue to move a bit away from Trump, you know how much he focuses on that, and he’s going to need something to change it,” Christie said. “And in today’s media landscape, absent a big mistake by one or the other, this is the only thing…He needs it.”
Photo courtesy of Political Tribune gallery.
