OPINION:
There is no downside for former President Donald Trump to debate Vice President Kamala Harris next month on ABC News. Mr. Trump made the right decision to show up at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago last week (Ms. Harris didn’t appear, due to a scheduling conflict), though he squandered an opportunity to win over not just those in the audience but a wider spectrum of young Black voters when he questioned Ms. Harris’ race.
Ms. Harris says she will appear on ABC on Sept. 10, but Mr. Trump says his previous agreement was with President Biden and because Mr. Biden has withdrawn from the race, that deal is void. If Mr. Trump doesn’t show, he gives Ms. Harris 90 minutes of free airtime. Given her inability to speak clearly without a teleprompter, that might be his strategy. Americans deserve better.
This should be less about their personalities and more about the country and our future. It’s not about race, gender, felonies, or the moral failings of candidates or their spouses. It’s about America and who is best positioned to lead the country back to economic prosperity, military strength and global respectability, especially among our enemies.
As an experienced debater, let me offer Mr. Trump some advice (if he is up to taking advice; he usually isn’t).
Be positive. Use humor where indicated. Make Ms. Harris defend her and Mr. Biden’s dismal record. Note how she has changed her position on every important issue except abortion and climate change. How can Americans trust someone who has no firm convictions? OK, Mr. Trump is vulnerable on this, too, but at least he has offered explanations for why he flipped, especially on abortion. What are hers on fracking and guns, for example?
As you did in your debate with Mr. Biden, let Ms. Harris talk. Without a teleprompter, she is as lost as someone in a strange city without GPS. The more her verbal and intellectual lapses are exposed, the better for Mr. Trump.
Challenge her for concealing Mr. Biden’s mental state. Demand to know if she knew about it all along and covered it up, along with other Democrats.
Demand that ABC and the rest of the media expose the real Kamala Harris instead of collaborating in her phony transformation. Recall last month, her polling numbers were terrible, and stories appeared of staff leaving because of her alleged ill treatment of them.
Wall Street Journal columnist Gerard Baker has asked the right question: “Can the Democrats and a collaborative media pull off their recasting of Vice President Kamala Harris from the verbally maladroit, politically inept, ruinous-policy-espousing electoral dud we have all seen over the past five years into the holy trinity of Joan of Arc, Harriet Tubman and Margaret Thatcher we have been presented within the past two weeks?”
Stick with the failed policies of the Biden-Harris administration and note how they have not lived up to their promises. Remind viewers (though they don’t really need reminding) of the cost of bread, eggs, milk, gasoline and mortgage rates four years ago and what they are now. Promise to bring them down again by reducing federal debt and eliminating unnecessary government.
Quote Barack Obama that this isn’t a Black or White America, but the United States of America. Note that Bill Clinton balanced the federal budget. but his party has been taken over by an extremist (Ms. Harris) who is judged to be to the left of Sens. Bernie Sanders, Vermont independent, and Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts Democrat.
Mr. Trump can’t win the debate if he doesn’t show up. Be gracious. Shake her hand. Tell Americans what you will do for America and remind voters what she (and Mr. Biden) have done to America.
You can thank me later.
• Readers may email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribpub.com. Look for Cal Thomas’ latest book, “A Watchman in the Night: What I’ve Seen Over 50 Years Reporting on America” (HumanixBooks).
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