"The fact that Trump began his speech more than an hour late on a day that temperatures in Atlanta exceeded 90 degrees might have sent some people packing, but you didn’t hear that from Trump."
“'If Mr. Trump had looked up from his teleprompter at any point during the second half of his 90-minute speech, he would have seen his own supporters slipping out of their bright blue seats, headed for the exits,' The New York Times reported today. 'Slowly but surely, across every stand and in every section, they streamed out. Stage left, a man in a star-spangled cowboy hat sidled down his row at the halfway mark.'"
"Two men holding signs bearing Mr. Trump’s mugshot tiptoed up their aisle a minute later. A young woman led her family away just as Mr. Trump started to falsely tell them that ‘Kamala Harris let in the savage monster who murdered Laken Riley.’”
Ben Meiselas on how Trump lost it due to his smaller size — um, crowd size, I mean — in Atlanta. Smaller than Kamala's….
"Enter Harris, 59, who instantly flipped the age issue against Trump. His often-disjointed screeds suddenly felt like the ravings of a grumpy old man, not entertaining breaks from politician-speak. Trump had always fed on the energy of his crowds. “Low energy” is a favorite Trump epithet against his foes. Now Harris has the energy, and her audiences seem positively rapturous."
~ E.J. Dionne
Gift link below from Greg Dworkin at Daily Kos.
"Trump thought standing next to Joe Biden made him look young — or at least young enough. Debating Joe Biden made him sound coherent — or at least coherent enough. Sparring with Joe Biden made him seem energetic — or at least energetic enough.
The side-by-side comparison with Kamala Harris is different. She is young, eloquent, and dynamic. Standing next to Kamala Harris, Trump will look well past his expiration date."
~ Dan Pfeiffer
https://open.substack.com/pub/messagebox/p/why-trump-is-afraid-to-debate-kamala