Mike Wallace, host of Fox News Sunday, is the moderator of the September 29 presidential debate. the Commission on Presidential Debate gives the moderator the choice of debate topics. Wallace has chosen to focus on:
- The records of President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden
- The Supreme Court
- COVID-19
- The economy
- “Race and violence in our cities”
- “The integrity of the election.”
Because Wallace is a conservative the choice of these topics is a win for Donald Trump.
1. The records of the candidates. Biden will have to defend a 47 year history. He has made many mistakes and many successes. Trump defends only four years. Trump will attack Biden for saying nothing as his son Hunter Biden took a job at a Ukraine gas company that gave him a salary of $80,000 a month. How can Biden defend his silence? The answer is by saying “this debate is not about my family.”
Biden should start by mocking Trump saying “I’m here to tell the American people what I will do as president and I will say more than that in more than two sentences.”
2. The Supreme Court. Trump will correctly say that he alone has the power to nominate judges to SCOTUS. There are no time limits or dates when a nomination is prohibited.
The question to both should be: Should selections to the Supreme Court be delayed in the year of a presidential election so that the winner selects the nominee?
Biden’s only counter argument is using the words of Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell who said four years ago,
“Given that we are in the midst of the presidential election process, we believe that the American people should seize the opportunity to weigh in on whom they trust to nominate the next person for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court. It is today the American people, rather than a lame-duck president whose priorities and policies they just rejected in the most-recent national election, who should be afforded the opportunity to replace Justice Scalia.”
3. COVID-19. This is the one topic where Joe Biden can shine. Most poll results say that the federal government has failed to protect the American population. The Bob Woodward interviews with Trump confirm that Trump intentionally mislead the American people.
Biden’s questions to Trump should be:
1. When you told Woodward that covid-19 is worse than the flu and then told the public the opposite, isn’t that lying?
2. If you knew it was so dangerous and transmitted by air, why did you keep holding rallies, mock people for wearing masks and nag governors to reopen businesses?
4. The economy. Who is to blame for the current economy is the question? Of course the current situation is a consequence of COVID-19. Trump will argue that once the virus is conquered the economy will quickly recover. Biden will likely argue that the economy before the virus only helped the wealthy.
5. Race and violence in our cities. Trump will be talking about “law and order must be maintained.” Biden will likely say that there is racial discrimination and everyone has the right to protest. Biden will point out that violence is rare and cannot be condoned.
6. The integrity of the election. Trump will repeat what he has already said many times that mail-in ballots are subject to fraud. Biden will say there is no evidence to support Trump’s claim. Trump will likely say that he will take his case to the Supreme Court. The question that Trump cannot answer is will a conservative SCOTUS award the presidency to Donald Trump?
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