'We're not sitting down': Trump declares at Bronx rally he nixed tables for CNN debate
While revving up his MAGA faithful at Thursday's rally in the Bronx, former President Donald Trump spiked the football for purportedly scrapping CNN's format for the first rematch showdown with President Joe Biden.
The 45th president said that the cable network wanted the two men to sit at tables, and this was a nonstarter.
"You know I agreed to do a debate with Crooked Joe Biden," the 77-year-old presumptive Republican nominee said to resounding boos. "On CNN."
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More boos.
"With Fake Tapper," he said, referring to anchor Jake Tapper (Dana Bash is expected to moderate as well).
"And I think they'll be fair," Trump said sarcastically. "Does anybody else think they'll be fair?"
"No!" the crowd answered.
"That's alright," Trump said.
He then tried to playback how he agreed instantly to the debate without being told the format or the terms.
Trump had dared Biden, 81, to debate in a video where he said he would meet him "anytime, anywhere, anyplace!"
"So they said we want to have a debate," Trump told the Bronx crowd. "I'll take it!"
"But we haven't even told you what the debate is all about," Trump said, feigning in voice as if he were the network producers. "Then they said today 'We'd like to set up tables for you to sit down.' — I said 'I don't want to sit down for a debate. Let's go!'
The crowd ate it up and cheered.
"At some point — so we're not sitting down," Trump boasted. "We're gonna be standing up for the debate."
Trump's body language has been highlighted in past debates. Notably, he was in constant motion when he contended for the 2016 presidency against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Afterward, he blamed Clinton for stepping in front of him in the town hall format at Washington University in St. Louis.
“She walks in front of me, you know," Trump at a rally after that debate. "And when she walked in front of me, believe me, I wasn’t impressed."
A Washington Post column called Trump out for "looming... like a mob boss" around Clinton as a form of intimidation to throw her off her game.