Within the last two hours, over a dozen US news organizations have released a joint letter calling for Biden and Trump to “commit to participating in general election debates.” Among the signatories are ABC, CNN, Fox, NBC and USA Today.
“With the contours of the 2024 general election now coming to clear focus, we—the undersigned national news organizations—urge the presumptive presidential nominees to publicly commit to participating in general election debates before November’s election,” the letter begins.
“General election debates have a rich tradition in our American democracy, having played a vital role in every presidential election of the past 50 years, dating to 1976. In each of those elections, tens of millions have tuned in to watch the candidates debating side by side, in a competition of ideas for the votes of American citizens.”
The open letter is right, presidential debates are a rich part of the recent tradition of American democracy—and well beyond 1976, too.
They’re often credited, for good and for ill, with changing the course of elections. Richard Nixon’s lack of Ivy League charm was put on full display for the nation to see in the 1960 debates, and together with his pallid demeanor and perspiration, is widely said to have cost him the election that year—although corruption and voter fraud had a crucial role to play too. Things might have been very different for America if Nixon, and not Kennedy, had won.
In 2016, the presidential debates undoubtedly helped to seal Hillary Clinton’s fate, when Trump was able to deliver one of the most epic burns of all time.
“It’s just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country,” said Hillary Clinton.
“Because you’d be in jail,” came the instant response. Then a huge chorus of cheers.
If anything keeps Hillary up at night, it’s not likely to be the fate of the four Americans killed in Benghazi or Seth Rich, but that devastating moment of humiliation on live TV.
Presidential debates happened in 2020, but this is not 2020. Biden is not the Biden of 2020. In fact, he’s a shell of the Biden who spent most of that election cycle hiding in his basement, taking the occasional Zoom call.
Leftists will try to make excuses and spin. They’re already saying that debates shouldn’t happen because letting Trump speak directly to the nation on TV is now a danger.
That’s exactly how Mark Jacob, an ex-editor at the Chicago Tribune and Sun Times, put it in response to a tweet from Brian Stelter hailing the open letter.
“Presidential debates are a bad idea this year,” Jacob Tweeted.
“Anytime [sic] you let a pathological liar on live TV, the liar has an advantage. You can’t fact-check them as quickly as they can lie. Also, we won’t learn anything new. TV people simply want a show, and they want to be a part of it.”
Presidential debates are a bad idea this year.
Anytime you let a pathological liar on live TV, the liar has an advantage. You can’t fact-check them as quickly as they can lie.
Also, we won’t learn anything new.
TV people simply want a show, and they want to be part of it. https://t.co/TfvUM42tHO— Mark Jacob (@MarkJacob16) April 14, 2024
But the elephant in the room is, of course, President Biden’s cognitive decline.
That decline was on clear display last night, when the White House was forced to cancel a live response to Iran’s missile and drone attack on Israel.
Trump mocked Biden mercilessly on Truth Social when it became clear that there would be no direct address to the nation.
“Biden, on Israel, didn’t do his ‘Address to the People’ LIVE. He taped it. This is no time for taped speeches!!! DJT”
A second “Truth” went straight for Biden’s wizened jugular.
“AFTER READING MY TRUTH, BIDEN’S HANDLERS CONVINCED HIM NOT TO RELEASE HIS TAPED SPEECH ON ISRAEL. HE’LL NOW ATTEMPT TO DO IT LIVE, PROBABLY TOMORROW. HE DOESN’T WANT TO LEAVE HIS HOUSE, WITH THE CORVETTE, IN DELAWARE!!!”
Users on Twitter were quick to suggest that the Iranian attack was timed for sundown to coincide with Joe Biden’s bedtime, in a clear reference to the phenomenon known as “sundowning,” where dementia patients lapse into confusion as the afternoon progresses into evening.
Funnily enough, that’s exactly what a liberal psychology professor accused Trump of doing in a recent podcast interview—sundowning, I mean. He said that because Trump confused Nancy Pelosi and Nikki Haley—something we could all be forgiven for doing—and because he had taken a few diversions and made a few digressions in recent speeches, that meant he was on the cusp of severe dementia, potentially within the next year.
But nobody really believes this, or that Biden’s cognitive abilities are “impressive” or “really impressive”, whatever Dr Harry Segal would have us believe.
And certainly not those who are in the closest contact with the president.
As far as I’m concerned, it’s hard to see a future in which these debates take place. Biden has nothing to gain from them, and avoiding them can be spun in various ways that will allow the left-liberal establishment to maintain its appearance of honour and concern for the health of democracy. This open letter means nothing. Words on a page.
Unless, of course, Biden’s small army of private physicians can come up with some new super-serum to pep Biden up and keep him going when it should be time to put on his jammy-jams and dream sweet dreams of ice cream. We’ll see.
Live Coverage: Iran Attacks Israel, Putin Threatens WW3