there is also precedent for him to exploit a political debate in an effort to move past a damaging scandal by saying outrageous things and steamrolling his opponents. case in point, trump turned out to be incredibly lucky that a presidential debate occurred on october 9th, 2016, just two days after the access hollywood story broke. now it s likely that whoever leaked the access hollywood video thought they were delivering the coup de gras by virtue of their impeccable timing but had the exact opposite effect. the debate ironically helped draw attention away from the scandal which had previously dominated the news cycles. no normal person could have pulled this off but instead of being ashamed or contrite trump went on offense against hillary clinton. and matt lewis joins us now
ashamed of herself if you want to know the truth. oh, my god. that is donald trump deflecting from his own troubles in a presidential debate in october 2016, just two days after the access hollywood tape was made. seems so long ago. as john heilemann says about donald trump, it is always confession or projection. our next guest is looking at how trump s current troubles are weighing over the republicans first presidential debate. now just days away. the piece by senior columnist matt lewis is entitled showing up to the gop debate would be the ultimate trump flex and it reads in part this, for normal politicians one indictment would be enough to go into hiding and avoid interrogation by a debate moderator, but, remember, trump is not a normal politician and just as there is precedent for trump to skip a primary debris,
up. there is some speculation he ll arrange to turn himself into georgia prosecutors on wednesday to upstage that debate, i certainly wouldn t put it past him considering his flair for the dramatic and trying to seek attention. your latest reporting as to whether trump might make an appearance at the debate but more than that if the republicans are going to at any point, chris christie aside change tactics and use that moment or any other to finally start taking him on. yeah, i m trying to remember the lesson in political science class where they said that good counterprogramming to a debate with your opponents is to turn yourself in on felony charges. i missed that that day in class obviously. i don t know. that s a new one for me. you re right. it s a fascinating convergence of these events where you have the one guy who is the dominant figure, the dominant voice in the party who is dealing with this felony, the latest felony counts against him at the same time all the others who w
could argue trump could say i m up by 40 points, let s let everyone attack ron desantis instead of me. i just think he s guided more by things like fear and the craving of attention and the more he feels that his back is against the wall and it doesn t have to be politically, it could be legally, i think that will drive him to turn out and to i think he has fun at these debates and maybe he should be afraid of chris christie, i m not sure that he actually has that in him. well, it also depends on, you know, exactly how they carry out the debate. there s going to be eight candidates on stage. is it going to be an actual debate, or is it going to be framed in a way where trump can own the narrative and talk over people, talk through time lines and it isn t a debate. it could be a great opportunity for him given the way he likes to operate. i disagree. i think he ll show up. i also think if he tries to say,
everybody else up on the debate stage. that gig is like eight years old, right? that s elvis in 77 now. and i think chris christie s got his number, and he knows, hey, donald trump has a gut instinct, his political gut instinct is second to none. like he sees it coming, and so i just don t i think he s scared to death of chris christie and will not have the guts to go or the nerve to go on stage with chris christie anywhere. a person in trump s orbit a few days ago told me when the decision is not yet made if he will go to the debate, he said, well, an argument to not go would be chris christie trains his sights on ron desantis and maybe finishes him off. they re well aware of christie s strength on the debate stage and chris christie has not yet qualified for the second republican debate so if trump wants to sit this one out, maybe he can show up on a debate stage a few weeks later and not have