President Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Reuters/AFP
Thomas L. Friedman, Star Tribune/New York Times: Biden should not debate Trump unless …
… the president agrees to release his tax returns and agrees to real-time fact-checking.
I worry about Joe Biden debating Donald Trump. He should do it only under two conditions. Otherwise, he’s giving Trump unfair advantages.
First, Biden should declare that he will take part in a debate only if Trump releases his tax returns for 2016 through 2018. Biden has already done so, and they are on his website. Trump must, too. No more gifting Trump something he can attack while hiding his own questionable finances.
And second, Biden should insist that a real-time fact-checking team approved by both candidates be hired by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates — and that 10 minutes before the scheduled conclusion of the debate this team report on any misleading statements, phony numbers or outright lies either candidate had uttered. That way no one in that massive television audience can go away easily misled.
Debates always have ground rules. Why can’t telling the truth and equal transparency on taxes be conditions for this one?
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WNU Editor: I expect more calls from Democrats to not have a Presidential debate between President Trump and former Vice-President Biden this year. For my own personal interest and because of this blog I do make the effort to listen/watch Joe Biden when he gives a podcast/interview/or town-hall. To say that they have been a disappointment and disconcerting is an understatement. He is not the debater who pulverized Paul Ryan in their Vice Presidential debate 8 years ago (see video here). And the idea that he can stand on a stage for two hours debating President Trump is hard to visualize.
