THE PROSECUTOR MEETS THE CRIMINAL

Why Trump is Chickening Out of Debating Kamala Harris

The tidal wave of enthusiasm generated by Vice President Harris's campaign reflects the thinking electorate's desire to participate in a truly historic event comparable to Barack Obama's campaign in 2008. It is beyond satisfying to see her displace Trump from the headlines in the press, leaving him little alternative but to take cheap potshots from the sidelines, exposing his unfitness for the presidency.

Her opening salvo, "Believe me when I tell you that I know Donald Trump's type," has scared him into backing out of debating her for the flimsiest of reasons until after she is nominated (and probably thereafter) because, fittingly, he's a criminal and she's a seasoned prosecutor and he knows how that will end. Here are some thoughts on how she would demolish him:

• To goad Trump into incoherent rage, end her opening statement with an attack by paraphrasing his words back at him: (Speaking to the camera.) “You know when the Republicans send their people, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending people that have lots of problems. They’re bringing crime. (Look Trump in the eye.) They’re rapists, they’re convicted felons, they’re cheats and liars. (Look at the camera.) And some, I assume, are good people. And to you good people, I want to say, You can do better. And, together, we can do better.” (The strategy should be to woo traditional Republicans and never-Trumpers with reasons to join up with Harris to avert the disaster of a second Trump presidency.)

• Blunt his firehose-full-of-lies (‘Gish Gallop’) attacks by refusing to rise to the bait, wasting precious time she can devote to delivering her message. Dismiss his word salad with a wave of the hand and a laugh, saying “No, no, no, no. I’m not going to waste my precious time debunking your latest additions to the 30,000 documented lies you told during your presidency and who knows how many more since you lost the 2020 election by 7 million votes. I’ll leave that to the fact-checkers. What the American people want to know is what a Harris/(insert vice president) Administration will do about...(address the issue raised by the question).“

• When he continues with his firehose approach say: Mimicking Reagan, “There you go again (laugh).” Continue with “What the American people deserve to know is . . .”

• “You say, ‘President Biden is the worst president in the history of the country.’ Tell that to the 15 million unemployed Americans in 2020 who got jobs during the Biden/Harris Administration, more than any other president in history over the same period, resulting in the lowest unemployment rates in 8 decades. Tell that to the X million Americans who obtained affordable health care insurance through the Affordable Care Act, reducing the number of uninsured to an all-time low of 7.2% in 2023. Tell that to the millions of Americans whose salary increases are outpacing inflation. Tell that to the American households who are wealthier and in better financial shape than ever before by almost any measure. Household net worth rose to a record $156.2 trillion at the end of the fourth quarter of 2023, from $131.4 trillion at the end of 2020. Tell that to Americans who witnessed homicides plunge from 6.8 per 100,000 population at the end of your administration to 5.6% during the first 3 years of the Biden/Harris Administration . Honestly, I don’t know what planet you’ve been living on for the past 3 years. You must have been praying to Our Lady of Alternative Facts. (Notice, this is a defense presented as an attack.)

• Hire comedy writers to supply one-liners ridiculing Trump’s lines of attack.