Aug.16

electoral-vote.com

Dem 51

   

GOP 49

Debates: Coming to Your TV This Fall (Probably!)

Inasmuch as the Trump/Vance ticket is losing ground, while Harris/Walz has all the momentum, the latter duo is in the driver's seat when it comes to debates. Yesterday, there were two important developments on that front.

To start, J.D. Vance finally brought an end to his dithering, and committed to debating Tim Walz on October 1 on CBS. That matchup will be moderated by CBS Evening News anchor Norah O'Donnell and Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan, and could well engender more interest than any VP debate since Sarah Palin-Joe Biden in 2008.

After that was settled, the Harris campaign put out a statement:

The debate about debates is over. Donald Trump's campaign accepted our proposal for three debates—two presidential and a vice presidential debate. Assuming Donald Trump actually shows up on September 10 to debate Vice President Harris, then Governor Walz will see JD Vance on October 1 and the American people will have another opportunity to see the vice president and Donald Trump on the debate stage in October. Voters deserve to see the candidates for the highest office in the land share their competing visions for our future. The more they play games, the more insecure and unserious Trump and Vance reveal themselves to be to the American people. Those games end now.

Clearly, Harris and Walz are not pulling punches these days.

There are a number of implications of this statement. To wit:

• Harris and Trump will debate on ABC on September 10 (admittedly, not quite the fall, despite our headline).
  
  
• If Trump behaves himself on September 10, then an October debate will be scheduled. No date or host has been settled upon, as yet, but NBC seems the most likely to do the honors. If so, then the moderators would probably be Kristen Welker and Lester Holt.
  
  
• There will be no Fox debate.
  
  
• We presume there will be no audiences.
  
  
• Vance's suggestion that there be two VP debates has been rejected. More specifically, a debate on Sept. 18 on CNN is not going to happen.
  
  
• Both Trump and Vance are going to have a very hard time coming up with an excuse not to show up.

If there is more of a total victory for Harris/Walz on the debate arrangements than this, we don't know what it would be. Maybe if, instead of standing behind a podium, the candidates had to sit on a couch. (Z)