TRUMP VS. SANDERS!
Outsider candidates set stage for unprecedented debate ... without Hillary
A Donald Trump-Bernie Sanders presidential debate — starring the two most unapologetic disrupters in American politics — would be a titanic ratings bonanza that observers say would likely produce at least one offstage loser: Hillary Clinton.
“Really, what it would be is a beat-up-on-Hillary love-fest,” said Andy Smith, a political science professor at the University of New Hampshire.
“I’m sure they’ll have to go after each other somewhat ... but I think it would be much more two people understanding what the advantages to the other are and playing to that,” Smith said. “And again, for both of them, the advantage is to beat up on Hillary.”
The showdown would likely tempt Trump to resurrect Bill Clinton’s sex scandals and “Crooked Hillary’s” private email server controversy, while Sanders piles on by bringing up her ties to Wall Street and comparing their plans on the minimum wage and college tuition.
Both candidates might even find common ground attacking Clinton’s support of the Iraq war and labeling her an elite political insider benefiting from an unfair “rigged system.”
“It certainly would make for entertaining television and sell a lot of tickets, and if they wanted to make it a charity event, raise a lot of money,” Smith said of the two candidates who routinely draw crowds of thousands on their own.
Both Trump and Sanders have
agreed in principle to the political slugfest. Trump said on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” Wednesday night he’d do it if the networks put up “a nice sum” for charity (later pegged at $10 million or $15 million for “maybe women’s health issues or something”), then reiterated yesterday during a press conference: “I’d love to debate Bernie — he’s a dream.”
Sanders responded on Twitter afterward: “I am delighted that (Donald Trump) has agreed to debate. Let’s do it in the biggest stadium possible.”
Sanders raised the one-onone prospect after Clinton declined to debate him before the June 7 California primary, as a new poll shows the candidates in a dead heat and a State Department audit faulted her for failing to protect emails on her private server.
“Her plummeting is astonishing,” said Marc Landy, a political science professor at Boston College. “It’s as if a certain kind of radical resentment has infiltrated the public and Sanders and Trump are the men of the hour ... because of their expressed disdain for things as usual. That seems to just resonate.”
The Trump-Sanders showdown is seen as a potential winwin for both candidates. Although the New York billionaire would have more to lose than the Brooklyn brawler, he’d dominate the news cycle and overshadow Clinton during what would otherwise be a down period for the newly minted GOP nominee.
Sanders, meanwhile, could try to prove to Democrats what many polls have already suggested — that he’d be a better general election challenger than Clinton.
While Sanders would risk burning bridges within the Democratic Party by accepting the matchup, Aaron Kall, the director of debate at the University of Michigan, said a strong performance from the Vermont progressive could convince Clinton to name him as her running mate.
“If he came out and really ended up being an attack dog against Trump,” Kall said, “it could in some ways be an audition for why he should at least merit consideration for being part of the ticket.”