Former President Donald Trump is considering skipping next month’s GOP presidential debate.
Republicans should want the 2024 election to be a referendum on Joe Biden’s abysmal performance.
While Trump should be welcome if he wants to get on the stage, would it be such a bad thing if he rainchecks?
Everyone already knows what Donald Trump stands for: Donald Trump, of course.
And that would be the subject of any debate he participates in.
Trump will hog the spotlight, call his rivals names, insult their looks like a kid in middle school.
That will force the others to respond. And make him the focus.
A majority of voters currently think neither Trump nor Biden is “fit to serve another term,” two recent polls found.
Polls also show that many Republicans are interested in alternatives who may have a better vision for America and a shot at defeating Biden, or any other Democratic candidate.
For that to happen, they need to hear the candidates’ views interrogated fully on a range of pressing present and future issues.
Bidenomics has added trillions to the national debt, sent prices soaring, eroded take-home pay and savings and forced the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates, making homeownership less affordable and risking an economic slowdown.
What will each candidate do about that?
The border’s a national nightmare, with millions having crossed during Biden’s tenure. How will the next president fix that?
What can be done about threats from China, Russia, North Korea, Iran?
The top GOP contenders — Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, Nikki Haley, Tim Scott, Chris Christie — are all people of substance, eager to debate precisely those issues.
They can lay out their plans for a way forward for their party — and the country — in a serious back-and-forth, giving the public a clear sense of what they stand for and their ability to highlight Biden’s failures.
Biden’s horrific performance gives Republicans a phenomenal shot at the White House.
The Democrats know this. They also know the waves of indictments against Trump that keep crashing into the news cycle serve as cover.
If Trump does not want to debate, that is his decision alone. But if he doesn’t, it is an opportunity for the American people to judge his rivals without it descending into a grievance session that falls into the same trap.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
