Former US President Donald Trump drew mockery for suggesting he may purposefully lose the first 2024 presidential debate to President Joe Biden to ensure that Biden isn’t removed from the Democratic ticket.
CNN will host the first Biden-Trump debate in Atlanta on June 27.
During an interview with Steve Gruber for the right-wing Real America’s Voice on Thursday, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Trump once again baselessly claimed Biden will be fed ”a lot of stuff” before the debate and once again called on the candidates to undergo drug tests beforehand.
Watch from the 9:30 mark here:
The talk turned to the possibility of Biden being replaced as the Democratic candidate, which Trump said he didn’t want to happen.
“Well, you know, interestingly, they’ve done polling, and I do better against almost everybody,” said Trump.
“And so they don’t want to take him off,” he continued. “Maybe I’m better off losing the debate. I’ll make sure he stays. I’ll lose the debate on purpose. Maybe I’ll do something like that.”
The Biden campaign immediately shared Trump’s comment on X, formerly Twitter:
Critics thought Trump was getting his excuses in early: