The Debate is Over

The Harris Campaign and unofficial staffers in the press refuse to have their candidate debate on Fox but are desperately trying to browbeat Trump into agreeing to another debate—on CNN.

Of course, if the Harris Team really thought she had the election wrapped up, another debate is the last thing they would want. If she already has the momentum and is heading around the track to victory, why risk it?

But the truth is, Harris is the one who needs this debate. Right now, she has several high hurdles to clear:

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First, the polls. This race is very close – according to RealClearPolitics, Harris’s lead nationally is only 2.2 percentage points. The RCP Average for the top seven battleground states shows a tie. And remember that in 2016 and 2020, the polls underestimated President Trump’s support. So my guess is that when the Harris Team runs the numbers, they know the race is even closer than it looks.

Second, Harris is incapable of generating favorable publicity for herself. Her team won’t let her make any significant policy announcements, she’s incapable of getting through even a series of softball questions from Oprah Winfrey without sounding like a student who didn’t do the reading, and her own political judgment is so bad that her advisers have decided to hide her from the public as much as possible.

Third, she is the incumbent at a time when only 28.4 percent of Americans report that the country is going in the right direction – and 61.3 percent say we’re on the wrong track:

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https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/state-of-the-union/direction-of-country

Now under these circumstances, you can see why the Harris campaign wants another debate. In the first place, it won’t be a real debate – it would really be a joint press conference. And if it takes place on CNN, as the Harris people propose, then the Harris team will know that the moderators will protect Harris and attack Trump. We just saw this a few weeks ago in the ABC debate, where the moderators plainly believed that their job was to help Harris win the election.

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Plus, another debate would give Harris’s supporters and press poodles something new to promote. As much as the press loves Harris, her strategy of avoiding any serious conversation on the issues deprives them of anything to write about. Yet they can only do so many features about what a great cook she is. Even reporters get tired of it. Without another debate, by late October some of the “journalists” may be so bored that they would actually start reporting on Harris herself – and that’s the last thing her campaign wants.

Given these challenges, of course Harris needs another debate. But there is no reason for Trump to agree. Ever since he came down the escalator in 2015, he has been involved in a continuous debate with the Establishment over what’s the best path forward for America – and he has won that debate.

Even in polls that show Harris up nationally, Trump wins on the issues that matter most. Consider the latest NBC poll.

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25171447-240405-nbc-september-2024-poll_922-release

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• By 48-40, Americans think Trump would be better at dealing with inflation and the cost of living (p. 17)
• By 50-41, Americans think Trump would be better at dealing with the economy, and
• By 54-33, Americans think Trump would be better at securing the border and controlling immigration

The debate is over. Trump won. The Establishment lost. Those margins are not close. Trump’s ahead by nine points on the economy, and by 21 points on the border. If the voters make their selection based on the issues, Trump will win easily.

And that’s why the media – and the Harris campaign – want to talk about anything but the issues. They’d rather talk about cooking. Or Kamala’s family. Or even guns that she may or may not actually own. And they’d certainly rather talk about whether to have another debate. But the GOP should not play that game. Trump has already won the most important debate of all – which of the two candidates is right on the issues. Now, over the next six weeks, Republicans should keep hitting Harris and the Democrats on those issues every single day.

A vote for Harris is a vote for open borders. It’s a vote for more inflation. It’s a vote for lower living standards. It’s a vote for war with Russia. Don’t be distracted. Don’t give Harris’s media supporters any excuses to change the topic. Keep making these points, every day, for 43 more days, and let’s see what the polls look like on November 5.