Don't let #DuckingDonald skip the debate. Get your #MakeTrumpDebateAgain hat today —–> https://t.co/U4RQzKkXTw pic.twitter.com/HzzQ3PSLoo
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) January 27, 2016
Miss Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” hats? Wish he would show up at the debate that he dropped out of because of Megyn Kelly? Ted Cruz wishes for that, too (or he just wants to steal some of the spotlight from Trump), and he went so far as to make a hat that reads: “Make Trump Debate Again.” Just in case you forgot who made these hats, the back, rather pathetically, has Cruz’s name.
According to Mediaite, there’s also the website MakeTrumpDebateAgain.com, which redirects to TedCruz.com.
Cruz is really trying make this embarrassing hashtag catch on.
I challenged @realDonaldTrump to a one-on-one debate. Tell him to accept: https://t.co/wUZHtRpaj4 #DuckingDonald pic.twitter.com/xjCvjS7yyx
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) January 27, 2016
ABC News reports that Cruz wants to debate just Trump, quoting the senator: “We’ll do 90 minutes, Lincoln Douglas, mano a mano. Donald and me. He can lay out his vision for this country, and I can lay out my vision for this country in front of the men and women of Iowa.”
Trump’s people responded, saying, “If he’s the last man standing and it comes down to a two-person race Donald Trump will be happy to debate him.”
This all seems a little desperate, but Cruz didn’t get to the “second is the best” position for the Republican nomination by being sensible and likable. He did it by being one of the most apparently hated men ever, and by taking a secret loan from Goldman Sachs. Now that he has some chance of winning this thing, girlfriend is gonna go for broke, by co-opting the frontrunner’s campaign slogan, and clumsily harnessing the power of social media to taunt him with a hashtag that was updated almost 40 minutes ago.
Also, Trump is just better at these things, but maybe the debate will be a tiny bit more watchable with him in it again.