America Braces for a Car-Crash Debate

Rising rent, inflated house prices and sky-high interest rates have reached a moment of crisis.

Record heat is knocking out train service in the northeast. Waves of migrants come from the south. Russia’s madman is threatening to use nukes against Ukraine. Israel continues its deadly assault on Gazan civilians with U.S. weaponry.

Surely, all these will be topics at this year’s first presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump on Thursday. But no. The vast majority of Americans will not be watching to be informed on policy or even to help them decide who will earn their vote. They just want to see the other guy fall.

“We keep using the word debate but it’s not really a debate anymore,” said Luke Nichter, a presidential historian at Chapman University.

“It’s a competitive press conference, simultaneous rallies with a split screen.”

There’s Biden, whose mental acuity has been called into question as public appearances reveal his inability to focus. Then there’s Trump, a convicted criminal facing three more trials who no longer hides his desire to dismantle U.S. democracy.

That has some questioning whether Biden should have agreed to debate at all.

“You don’t debate when you’re ahead,” Nichter said. “You debate when you’re behind. Biden needs to win more. He should be further ahead than he is.”

Edelson said: “The very act of being on that stage normalizes Trump. He looks like a candidate by definition because he’s on the stage with Biden. People will say, ‘He can’t really be that bad.

He’s standing up there, right?’”