Chuck Todd: The next primary is already brewing

Events on the sidelines of the Democratic convention offered a glimpse of what the event might have looked like had Biden retained his hold on his party.

CHICAGO — One of the more fascinating “what ifs” that someone presented to me this week is this: What if former President Donald Trump had said no to President Joe Biden’s early debate proposal?

As someone who has gone down “what if” rabbit holes for years, I was mad at myself for not having thought of this alternative history scenario yet.

To be more specific: Will Trump’s decision to accept Biden’s terms for an early debate go down in political history as the biggest campaign blunder of the last 20 years? We won’t know the answer to that question until November. But let’s play this out a bit.

One thing is for sure — had Trump not accepted the early debate proposal and instead insisted on doing debates in a more traditional post-convention timeline, then it’s unlikely this convention would be nominating Vice President Kamala Harris. Instead, this would most likely have been a Biden convention.

And what would it have looked like with Joe Biden as the nominee? Many of the speakers might have been the same, sans one high-profile potential no-show (Michelle Obama). Her reasons would have been personal, not political, but it would have been a notable absence.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/chuck-todd-primary-already-brewing-rcna167681

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