Debates might be over
There’s a good chance we’ve seen the last presidential primary debate of the 2024 cycle since tonight’s debate in New Hampshire was canceled after Nikki Haley announced that she wouldn’t participate if Donald Trump wasn’t there.
Performing well in a debate is hard, which is why debates are necessary. It’s a lot easier to read a script off a teleprompter or shake hands and make small talk at diners in Iowa and New Hampshire.
The GOP primary debates haven’t been perfect—it’s a lot harder for candidates when there are more than, say, four of them onstage. You can argue that the time limits are too strict to get into any detail when discussing serious topics such as entitlement reform, climate change or the U.S. relationship with Red China. You can argue, fairly, that too many candidates come armed with canned zingers, opposition research, hackneyed slogans or campaign websites to shoehorn into every answer.
But this is one of the few times when American voters get to see candidates thinking on their feet—or, in some cases, failing to think on their feet. Almost everything else on the campaign trail is heavily choreographed by their staff. The debate stage is where the contrasts between the candidates are sharpest.
There’s some irony in the fact that Haley is now the one turning down a debate opportunity; her debate performances are what elevated her to the top tier, or at least to the theoretically-has-a-shot tier.
And with Trump refusing to participate in primary debates, it’s fair to wonder whether the general election debates later this year are going to happen.
Earlier this month, two Democratic senators close to Biden, Dick Durbin of Illinois and Chris Coons of Delaware, speculated to The Hill that perhaps Biden should not participate in a general election debate with Trump, which could give the former president a platform he doesn’t deserve.
Coons said, “I was in the room for one of the debates in 2020—Chris Wallace was the moderator. The former president in no way at all respected the rules or the tradition or decorum” of presidential debates. “It was a disaster.”
Neither senator was speaking on behalf of Biden’s campaign, but this sounds like the floating of a trial balloon. Apparently Biden’s allies aren’t so eager to see him onstage with Trump again.
America has had a presidential debate every cycle since 1976. Democracy is better with debates than without debates. But in this case, a presidential contest with no debates might be relief: Maybe we’ve reached the point where nobody wants to see these two old men onstage shouting at each other anymore.