Mary Trump "still traumatized" by Donald's debate vs. Joe Biden
Former President Donald Trump's estranged niece Mary Trump says that she is "still traumatized" by her uncle's last debate with President Joe Biden.
A disastrous performance by Biden during the June 27 debate in Atlanta sparked a chain of events that led to the president dropping out of this year's presidential race less than one month later and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris.
On Tuesday night, Harris will take the stage as the new Democratic nominee while facing off against Donald Trump in a presidential debate for the first and possibly only time, in Philadelphia.
Hours before the debate, Mary Trump said during her Emergency Nerds podcast that she did not "want to watch" Tuesday's event due to memories of the Biden-Trump debate.
The former president's niece said that she was opposed to Biden participating in the Atlanta debate before it happened because she felt her uncle did not "deserve" to share the stage with the incumbent president.
"My reasons for not wanting President Biden to debate Donald had nothing to do with how the debate actually unfolded," Mary Trump said. "I'm still traumatized. I was in Atlanta, I'm still traumatized. I don't want to watch the debate tonight.
"The reason I didn't want President Biden to debate Donald was because it normalized a traitor to this country," she continued. "It normalized an adjudicated rapist and a convicted felon. He didn't deserve to be on that stage."
Newsweek reached out for comment to the White House and the Trump campaign via email on Tuesday evening.
Mary Trump went on to say that Harris does not "have a choice" but to debate her Republican nominee, while lamenting that an outstanding performance is "being expected of her while nothing is being expected" of her uncle.
Biden told reporters outside the White House late Tuesday afternoon that he intends to watch the debate after attending his granddaughter's birthday party in New York, while adding that he had offered Harris advice on debating the ex-president.
"I've spoken to the vice president," Biden said. "She seems calm, cool and collected. I think she's going to do great. And I'm not going to tell you what advice I gave her."
While Harris will certainly not want to take any cues from the president's ill-fated debate performance in June, Biden's performances during his two 2020 debates with Trump were met with far better reviews.
Tuesday's debate with Harris will be the seventh general election presidential debate for Trump, with the former president having also participated in three debates with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016.
While Harris' first-ever general election presidential debate is against Trump, she previously participated in several other debates while running for state office in California, U.S. Senate and in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries.
