Trump Should Play Hardball in the Debate Standoff with Harris

The vice president needs a debate much more than Trump does.

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Left: Former president Donald Trump in Clinton Township, Mich., September 27, 2023. Right: Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign event at the United Auto Workers Local 900 in Wayne, Mich., August 8, 2024.

Rebecca Cook, Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters

While the media are reporting that Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will debate on September 10, the truth is that they continue to talk past each other when scheduling their faceoffs. Trump’s slide in the polls is putting some pressure on him to agree to Harris’s and the media’s terms quickly. Trump should resist that pressure because time is on his side.

Debates usually happen only in contested races whose outcome is in doubt. That makes sense: Why should someone who’s guaranteed to win give their opponent a chance to shine, or risk making a fatal mistake?

Henry Olsen

About the Author

Henry Olsen

Henry Olsen is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and the author of The Working-Class Republican: Ronald Reagan and the Return of Blue-Collar Conservatism.

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