Nation owed a debate
The Republican National Committee will not anoint former president Donald Trump as the GOP’s “presumptive nominee” this week in Las Vegas after all. The Trump campaign wanted that formal designation bestowed but reversed course after several members of the party’s governing body called it undemocratic, given that 48 states have yet to cast primary or caucus ballots. “I should do it the ‘Old Fashioned’ way,” the former president posted on social media, “and finish the process off AT THE BALLOT BOX.”
That’s progress: Trump wants voters, not an angry mob of his supporters, to decide an election. Apparently, he saw that it would have been politically unwise, even within the party he dominates, to so blatantly short-circuit the nominating process.
The last opponent standing in his way is Nikki Haley. Trump, brushing aside her accusations that he is “totally unhinged,” refuses, insultingly, to debate the woman he calls “Birdbrain.”
To be sure, debate avoidance is standard operating procedure for front-runners. If he were really so confident of his intellectual superiority to a rival whom he once admired enough to appoint as his ambassador to the United Nations, however, Trump would relish the chance to debate. Such a clash would certainly serve the Republican Party, and the country as a whole, by focusing attention on the degree to which Haley’s accusations about his fitness for office have merit.
A debate with Haley would force Trump to explain his proposal for a 10 percent tax on all imports, essentially a $300 billion annual tax increase, and why he allowed the national debt to grow $7.8 trillion during his term. Trump has demagogued Haley for acknowledging that the retirement age needs to be raised for younger people to save Social Security from insolvency.
Republicans rallied behind Trump last year as he was indicted on 91 counts in four cases, widely perceiving these prosecutions as politically motivated. But a jury awarding $83.3 million in damages on Friday to E. Jean Carroll for defamation pointed to risks the GOP assumes by coronating Trump and offers a rationale for Haley to keep running.
Trump has been willing to face his accusers in court, even when he’s not required to show up. Why won’t he face Haley on a debate stage?