CNN’s KFile Unearths Clip of Trump Blasting Candidates Who Skip Debates as Cowards

According to former President Donald Trump — who backed out of a second debate against Vice President Kamala Harris — presidential candidates who won’t debate lack the “courage” needed to be the President of the United States.

CNN’s KFile senior editor Andrew Kaczynski uncovered comments made by Trump on the record from 2011, when he attempted to host a debate for Republican candidates running in the 2012 election. When they all turned him down, Trump appeared on Imus in the Morning and on Fox News and said the candidates “don’t have the courage to do it.” He also told Fox News at the time: “Not lots of courage, these Republicans. They’re supposed to be brave.”

During a conversation with CNN’s Erin Burnett on Thursday, Kaczynski presented a longer version of the exchange with the late Don Imus:

Trump: And, you know, some of them don’t have the courage to do it. I don’t want to say who, but there are a couple —

Imus: We know who they are.

Trump: I mean, there are a couple of them that called me and told me, “I just, Donald, I’m just too nervous to do it.” And I’m saying to myself, here’s a guy who is supposed to negotiate, or a person that’s supposed to negotiate against China. These guys come out of the womb. They never cry. You know, they’re not even crying. And we have guys that are afraid to go into a debate.

Burnett responded to the clips by referring to the CNN debate Trump had been invited to but rejected: “Yeah, well, I mean, we sure wish that he had said ‘yes’ to that debate. We would have been very happy to host it. But, um, he didn’t.”

CNN asked for a response from both the Trump and Harris campaigns. Trump’s response, from campaign senior advisor Brian Hughes, read: “President Trump has already won two debates this election cycle and he’s proven he is the best negotiator on the world stage.”

Harris campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa said: “You don’t hear it from us very often, but he was right back then. If you’re too weak to share a debate stage with your opponent, you are too weak to lead the country.”

Watch the video above via CNN.