There is no condition that any candidate MUST be present at the debates ... it is simply a matter of a person agreeing / disagreeing to attend.

It is quite possible, based on his attitude during the campaign, that Donald Trump may not attend the debates.

The Great Debate And Media Cowardice of Donald Trump Will Be His Downfall

Donald Trump’s avoidance tactics when it comes to debating Hillary Clinton and interviewers known for being good at their job speak to a great cowardice that just might be his downfall.

Donald Trump doesn’t do interviews with people he can’t manage. He avoids the most intelligent, expert interviewers we have, such as NPR’s Steve Inskeep and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.

Steve Inskeep Verified account ‏@NPRinskeep

Steve Inskeep Retweeted Donald J. Trump

So it’s no surprise that Trump is already making noises about the debates being rigged against him, claiming Hillary Clinton set the dates to conflict with NFL games. This, of course, is not true.

The debate schedule was set before the NFL schedule. But perhaps Donald Trump doesn’t know this. Chances are better that he simply doesn’t care. Trump told ABC’s This Week that he “got a letter from the NFL complaining about the debate schedule, “this is ridiculous, why are the debates, because the NFL doesn’t want to go against the debates.”

But that never happened. The NFL even told CNN it never happened.

Desperate Trump is desperate.

But some part of Trump does recognize that he can’t afford to debate Hillary Clinton and while his ego might not admit this to himself, he is busy defending the borders of his easily wounded sense of self-importance. So NFL games it is.

Clinton cut Trump’s drama game off at the knees by announcing last night that she would be doing all three debates.

Perhaps this tweet is a signal of Trump’s next attempt to find an easy exit:

Donald J. Trump Verified account ‏@realDonaldTrump

Cut to Donald Trump claiming debates are for Washington insiders and his followers cheering him on. And surely Donald Trump avoiding Hillary Clinton in a televised debate would be great for Republicans down ticket as well, in the sense that Trump won’t have a chance to make a fool of himself policy wise, refusing to debate doesn’t bode well for any candidate.

Trump did his best to avoid primary debates, making noise and causing drama about 3 debates that he ultimately went to before he began actually skipping debates. His cowardice is masked by the chaos and drama that envelope Trump’s bluster at every turn.

As CNN pointed out in 2012 noting that it had been since 1972 that any candidate had declined to debate, “A candidate would be seen as chicken for not agreeing to debate. (If you thought the Clint Eastwood empty chair at the Republican National Convention this summer caused conversation, just think what a candidate who agreed to debate would have to say about the empty chair of an opponent who declined).”

Oh, I think we are all going to find out what we think of Hillary Clinton debating an empty chair. But I wouldn’t put it past Trump to stage his own one-man debate on the same night, hosted by Fox of course, and moderated by the triad of conspiracy mongers Breitbart, Drudge, and Alex Jones.

What this is, under the bluster and diva-like behavior, is pure cowardice. Donald Trump knows nothing about policies. Hillary Clinton is the most experienced, knowledgeable candidate to run for the office in modern history. I can’t blame Trump for fearing he’s out of his league but in fact, he is out of his league.

Donald Trump doesn’t belong on a debate stage with Hillary Clinton. His cartoonish ignorance won’t be nearly so charming to the millions who haven’t been paying attention yet. Trump’s cowardice might be his downfall, as Americans don’t like chickens.

Donald Trump’s downfall should be his temperament, but his cowardice might get him first.