Trump: 2020 Democratic field looks ‘somewhat easier’ to debate than Clinton

President Trump on Tuesday said the field of Democratic presidential candidates vying for the opportunity to challenge him next year “looks somewhat easier” to debate than his 2016 opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Trump argued in a tweet that he won “EVERY debate” in 2016, “including the three with Crooked Hillary Clinton, despite the fact that in the first debate, they modulated the sound on me, and got caught.”

{mosads}”This crew looks somewhat easier than Crooked, but you never know?” Trump added.

While Trump surged to the top of the polls during the primary season and stayed there following his performances in the GOP presidential debates, surveys showed he did not fare better than Clinton in the general election debates.

CNN polls conducted after each of the three presidential debates showed voters saying Clinton was the winner. The surveys found that 62 percent of respondents said Clinton won the first debate, 57 percent said she won the second debate and 52 percent said she won the third one.

Trump said after the first debate that he had been given a “defective” microphone.

The Commission on Presidential Debates later issued a one-sentence statement acknowledging “issues” with the candidate’s audio.

Twenty Democratic presidential hopefuls took part in the first debates of the primary cycle last week. Trump was in Japan for the Group of 20 summit, and largely dismissed the first night’s debate as “boring.” He later directly criticized former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) for their performance the following evening, on Thursday.

A post-debate poll from CNN showed Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) gaining ground on Biden following their strong debate performances.