The Presidential Debate Saga Is Just Beginning

The news is—or is being reported as—President Biden has challenged former president Donald Trump to two debates, and Trump has accepted . . . for now. In fact, it was Trump who first issued the debate challenge on March 6, after Super Tuesday. In other words, the media is already tampering with the truth.

The Biden “challenge” was snarky: he said, “So, let’s pick the dates, Donald. I hear you’re free on Wednesdays.” (On Wednesdays, Alvin Bragg’s disgraceful lawfare trial of Trump takes a day off.)

Biden’s terms were, of course, stacked for Biden—why are we not surprised? What was a bit surprising was that Trump accepted (for now) the terms. The most obviously disadvantageous term was that the moderator must be someone from the mainstream media.

Quick, name an honest reporter from the mainstream media. They are all in the tank for Biden, and they’re all likely to ask questions that seek only to embarrass Trump, not to elicit actual policy positions that might help voters decide whom to vote for.

And we should remember that in 2016, Donna Brazile, then interim head of the Democratic National Committee as well as a political commentator for CNN, gave the debate questions to the Hillary Clinton campaign in advance.

Here is a list of questions any one of numerous mainstream media “stars” is likely to ask the former president:

1. Mr. Trump: Do you think your being impeached twice while you were president should disqualify you from being president again?

2. Mr. Trump: It was widely reported that you were Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s favored candidate in 2016 and that during the campaign your people colluded with Russia. Do you think you are still Putin’s favored candidate? I want to remind our viewers that the Mueller Report, after extensive investigation of your campaign’s interactions with Russia, explicitly stated that it had not exonerated you.

3. Mr. Trump: You said you never sexually molested E. Jean Carroll, but she sued you, and a jury of her peers—folks like the people watching this debate, folks like the average voter—decided you were not telling the truth and awarded her a judgment of $5 million. Why should the American public want someone who molests women to be president?

4. Mr. Trump: During the 2016 campaign, you were accused of having made numerous racially insensitive and offensive remarks, both in private and in public. Do you think you’re the kind of person Americans should elect as president?

5. Mr. Trump: On more occasions than we can count, you have used racist and offensive language, both in private and in public. Do you really think you’re the kind of person Americans should elect as president?

And here’s a list of questions the media are likely to ask Joe Biden:

1. Mr. President: As you know, the Republican Party is dead set against abortion, and many Republicans oppose any abortion at any time for any reason. Are you prepared to help every woman in America get an abortion if she wants one?

2. Mr. President: You have made it perfectly clear that you want to fix our broken border, but the Republicans refused—out of partisan spite—to pass legislation that would assist you in doing just that. Why do you think the Republicans refuse to give you the tools you need to fix the border?

3. Mr. President: Some people are concerned about your fitness for office. But many of your staff say they can hardly keep up with you. Why do you think Donald Trump keeps harping on that issue?

4. Mr. President: You have been a fighter for civil rights for blacks all your life. What are the three most important steps you will take to further the cause of civil rights?

5. Mr. President: It is said by many, including you, that what’s really at stake in this election is democracy itself. Can you tell this American audience what your concerns are?

Here are five questions (there are many more) that Biden should be asked but which will likely never see the light of the debate stage:

1. Mr. President: At 80 years old, you are clearly showing your age. You fell off your bicycle; you said your uncle (who was shot down during World War II) was eaten by cannibals in a place where there are no cannibals; and transcripts of your remarks constantly have to be edited. In addition, Special Counsel Robert Hur decided not to recommend charges against you for “willfully” retaining classified documents, despite finding evidence that you had done so, because, he said, you were an elderly man with memory issues—that you couldn’t remember when you finished your term as vice president or when your son Beau died.

Given your infirmities, as the world becomes ever-more dangerous, why should Americans trust you to be their commander-in-chief?

2. Mr. President: As you may or may not recall, the top two U.S. generals who oversaw the August 2021 evacuation of Afghanistan as it fell to the Taliban blamed you for the chaotic disaster, saying that it was inadequately planned—yet you have never taken responsibility for the chaos that occurred. Why not?

3. Mr. President: Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates famously said, “I think [Joe Biden] has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.” Do you think his assessment of you is correct?

4. Mr. President: You forgave half a trillion dollars of student loans, and then the Supreme Court said you didn’t have the authority to do that. And then you did it again.

You tried to ban evictions of residential tenants by landlords. The Supreme Court said you didn’t have the authority to do that. You tried to require COVID vaccines. The Supreme Court blocked that too. The Supreme Court is a vital part of our democracy. Don’t you believe in that part of our democracy?

5. And a related question, Mr. President: Why shouldn’t Americans think you’re a dictator when you seem to diss the Supreme Court regularly?

But those questions, and questions like them, won’t be asked by reporters from the mainstream media.

This story is only just beginning.

Daniel Oliver is Chairman of the Board of the Education and Research Institute and a Director of Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy in San Francisco. In addition to serving as Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission under President Reagan, he was Executive Editor and subsequently Chairman of the Board of William F. Buckley Jr.’s National Review.

Email Daniel Oliver at Daniel.Oliver@TheCandidAmerican.com.