Former New York Times and CNN reporter Brian Steltzer shared a letter signed by 13 national news organizations (ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News, The AP, C-SPAN, Univision, NewsNation, NPR, PBS NewsHour, and USA Today) which urges the two presumptive presidential nominees, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, to publicly debate on live television before Election Day.
Steltzer’s post announcing the debate request met with strong opposition in the comments, largely decrying the withered debate standards in recent years and questioning a debate’s role in genuinely informing the public.
Media producer Susan Bordson replied: “All recent TV debates were spectacles that haven’t served a more informed electorate — and all programming execs know this. They’ve been designed to encourage tabloidish *gotcha* sound bites and often feature terrible questions from moderators taken right off of social feeds.
I teach argument & debate, I used to coach debate, I once worked to get a presidential debate on my campus, I don’t think Biden should debate Trump. https://t.co/dPyqrFwDLA
— Jennifer Mercieca (@jenmercieca) April 15, 2024
Economist Dean Baker, co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, replied: “You know, Trump has made a virtue out of ignoring EVERY norm of political conduct, including recognizing the results of elections. If these news outlets think there is some moral obligation for Biden to debate in this context, they need to pay a little attention to the world.”
Historian of American political rhetoric Jennifer Mercieca, professor of communications at Texas A&M, offered her opinion, too. She replied: “I teach argument & debate, I used to coach debate, I once worked to get a presidential debate on my campus, I don’t think Biden should debate Trump.”
Mercieca added: “The American public deserves to hear the candidates debate each other. That would help people to make good decisions about who to support. It’s a real shame that the Republican Party is nominating someone who doesn’t value debate or democracy.” She said of the GOP nominee: “Trump violates the rules, making it pointless to interview him or debate him…He would never ‘debate,’ he would cheat.”
Note: Mercieca, the author of Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump (2020), provided testimony to the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 attack on the Capitol and outlined how Trump used rhetoric in “anti-democratic ways.”