With the conventions over, the presidential debates are the last scheduled major event with the potential to swing the election, though some don’t want them to happen at all.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday became the most important Democrat to say that Joe Biden, the party’s presidential nominee, should not debate President Trump. She argued that there was no point even dignifying Trump with something like a presidential debate.
“I don’t think that there should be any debates,” Pelosi told reporters. “I do not think that the president of the United States has comported himself in a way that anybody has any association with truth, evidence, data, and facts.”
“I wouldn’t legitimize a conversation with him nor a debate in terms of the presidency of the United States,” she added.
This is consistent with a frequent resistance argument against “normalizing” Trump, though this was largely abandoned after his first year in office. Trump has been leaning heavily on his incumbency as the campaign kicks off, issuing pardons and presiding over a naturalization ceremony in Republican National Convention broadcasts and delivering his acceptance speech from the White House.
But many Republicans suspect, at the very least, Democrats want Biden to sit on his lead in the polls — he’s currently up 7.1 points in the RealClearPolitics polling average — and do nothing to jeopardize it. They also think Democrats wish to conceal what they claim is an age-related decline in Biden’s mental acuity, evident in lackluster debate performances during the Democratic primary.
“Joe Biden had plenty of practice from the 11 Democrat primary debates, but he’s still getting lots of advice from Nancy Pelosi and others who want him to bail out on encounters with President Trump completely,” said Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh. “Biden has vehemently opposed holding even one debate before millions of Americans actually start voting, and one has to wonder why he would fear a side-by-side comparison with President Trump before ballots are cast. Biden clearly knows he can’t defend the radical left policies he has adopted and wants to keep voters in the dark as long as possible.”
The Biden campaign has steadfastly maintained its candidate will debate. It notes that it accepted the presidential debate commission’s invitation already, while the Trump campaign has sought to rework the arrangement to get in a debate before early voting begins. No one directly affiliated with the Biden campaign has ever publicly suggested calling off the debates, only journalists such as Elizabeth Drew and outside Democratic operatives such as Joe Lockhart.
Biden himself claims he is eager to debate. “Here’s the deal with bullies, I understand how they work,” he told CNN. “And I’m going to play by the rules of the debate commission, and we’re going to have a debate.” The former vice president vowed to MSNBC that he will be a “fact-checker on the floor.”
Yet Pelosi is the first senior Democrat to say Biden shouldn’t have to debate Trump, potentially signaling the party would circle the wagons around its nominee if he reconsidered or wanted to alter the terms of the debates, citing COVID-19. Republicans worry that the media would not cover it as negatively as if it was Trump refusing.
“We are also concerned that his handlers will ultimately decide to keep him in his basement and avoid debates entirely or suggest holding them remotely via Skype, where Biden could rely on nearby handlers, a teleprompter, or notes,” Murtaugh said. “These possibilities would be unacceptable and an affront to voters.”
Biden performed well in vice presidential debates against Sarah Palin and Paul Ryan in 2008 and 2012, respectively. While his Democratic primary debate showings were not received as positively, they did not prevent him from winning the nomination with relative ease after getting off to a slow start. His Democratic convention speech also got good reviews. Pelosi later said she had “every confidence” in Biden’s ability to debate Trump, and Democrats have regularly said they are eager to see Kamala Harris, a prosecutor by background, debate Vice President Mike Pence.
Some Democrats believe Republicans have little to worry about because public opinion would react negatively to any debate cancellation. “It’s a mistake to even talk like this,” said a Democratic strategist. “Trump has gotten nowhere with the age attacks, why do anything to give them legs?”
Pelosi has said the only candidate she is worried about in the debates is Trump, characterizing his behavior in the 2016 bouts with Hillary Clinton as “disgraceful.” “I think that he’ll probably act in a way that is beneath the dignity of the presidency,” she said.
The commission has scheduled three debates between Trump and Biden plus one vice presidential debate between Pence and Harris. The Trump campaign unsuccessfully pressed for an additional, earlier debate.
