We are still not certain we are going to see Kamala Harris and Donald Trump square off in a presidential debate on September 10 on ABC News, but I have been thinking about what might happen if they do.
When I went back and watched the 2020 vice presidential debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris, it was clear that she gave the answer she wanted to give. She clearly had rehearsed a bunch of canned answers, and she was disciplined in delivering them. She did a good job of not veering off course.
That is why I do not think she is going to be baited by Trump this time around. He is going to be trying to poke holes in her arguments and punch at her rhetorically to get her to say something off-script. But I don’t think she is not going to fall for it. She is going to give her canned answer on immigration, her canned answer on taxes, her canned answer on ‘insert the topic here’ – and the moderators are going to let her get away with it.
When I moderated the GOP primary debate last December, one of the ways that we kept things spicy was to assure the candidates on stage that they would be given the chance to jump in on the argument that had been teed up. They would start to talk over each other and then we just signal, like, ‘Hold on, Mr. Ramaswamy. I’m coming to you, but let him finish his answer.’ That gives you order, but it also allows you to get a lot of candidates in on the action which is what they want. The smart ones want in on it and want to mix it up.
I guarantee you will not be seeing that at the ABC News debate. Zero chance.
If Trump gets up in Kamala’s grill, David Muir and Linsey Davis will run cover for her. If he asks about her reversals on fracking, or the border, or Medicare for all, they are not going to look at her and say, ‘Vice President Harris, please respond on those three points. You’ve got 60 seconds.’ They are going to want to return to their pre-scripted questions – the ones that have been approved by the ABC News bosses and aren’t too hard for her.
The last thing they want is debate, and there are several reasons for that. Number one, the anchors would prefer to read their prepared questions. Number two, they want to protect Kamala Harris. And number three, these anchors are not schooled in live television in that manner that a cable news host would be, so they are afraid of things starting to spin to the point where they cannot control it.
All of this is to say, it is not going to be satisfying to watch. I will be shocked if the debate is satisfying to those of us who really want to see Kamala Harris be pressed and answer questions.
You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in to episode 871 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.