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The former president said there would be a debate on Fox News on September 4 in Pennsylvania, as well as the previously agreed to September 10 debate on ABC News in Pennsylvania, and a third debate on NBC News on September 25 in Michigan. “Details to follow. I look forward to seeing Kamala at all three Debates!” he wrote.
However, the Harris campaign suggested that this schedule was not agreed to from their side, except for the ABC debate.
“We’re pleased Trump finally agreed to debate the Vice President on ABC after previously trying to back out. We are open to another debate, and we’ll continue those conversations. But to be clear, any additional debate would be subject to Trump actually showing up on September 10. We’re not playing his games,” a Harris campaign aide told Newsweek in a Sunday morning email.
Because Bernie is an actual populist. Not a neoliberal doing their best populist impression.
And Pete does well because even though the Fox pundits are ghouls, they are generally civil, and Pete is very intelligent… though I’m no fan of his.
Bernie would do well in a debate against Trump pretty much anywhere except maybe a “Ben Shapiro / Steven Crowder vs college kids” style debate where only one person really holds the mic, and can talk over you and dismiss you outright and then gish gallop on their own…
But really Bernie genuinely holds all the positions that Trump gives lip service toward - like people not being able to find jobs, housing being too expensive, working people having to struggle, etc. - ie the stuff Trump talks about to win low-info poor voters, but in practice actually just does damage to.
I’m not as sure that Harris or Buttigieg would do as well, because they tend to try to treat debates like court room cross-examinations, where you can generally expect civility and actual consequences for lying to occur.
This is why Harris has excelled in congressional hearing environments at making her opponents squirm. You can be held in contempt of Congress for lying under oath… but the debates largely allow outright lies, so it’s up to charisma, policy, and being able to wittily combat your opponent. Its why Sanders completely annihilated the FOX News hosts’ talking points on their backfired town hall.
Trump has nothing on Bernie, probably not much of substance on Harris, or Pete either.
Trump is probably too cowardly to face anyone competent these days, but don’t forget that at one point in previous primaries that Trump literally backed out of doing a previously agreed-upon debate with Bernie, and was caught on a hot mic admitting the only candidate he was worried about was Sanders.
Great post. I truly hope I’m wrong, but I’ve been trying to temper people’s expectations when they seem to be expecting Harris to annihilate Trump in a debate.
She has grown incredibly as a public speaker compared to only a few years ago, so maybe she is getting coaching and is better now.
But like you say, her experience comes from attacking out of a position of authority in a setting that strictly enforces decorum. She has none of that in a debate, and we can expect the moderators to do their usual worst. Trump will give her no respect, will talk (shout, more likely) over her and pay no heed to truth - comfortable with knowing live fact-checking won’t happen.
Her only path to victory is to stare him down and put him in his place on merit and out of a display of personal authority. It’s a very different prospect than being a courtroom prosecutor.