Now that Donald Trump appears to be headed to appearing on the November presidential ballot against President Joe Biden, the former president who refused to debate any of his Republican Party has suddenly decided debates are not only important but key to his re-election.
According to MSNBC analyst Zeeshan Aleem, Trump's turnabout on standing on the stage with an opponent may not help him and could hurt him because he is "overestimating" the impact.
As the MSNBC columnist wrote, "the real reason Trump is so eager likely has nothing to do with the public good and everything to do with his estimation that he’ll be able to thrash Biden on the debate stage ahead of Election Day. But that playbook isn’t as clear-cut as Trump may think it is."
As he noted, Trump's plans aren't "unreasonable" since he views his appearances through an "entertainment" lens, but, as he noted, the now-former president's debate performances in 2020 didn't move the needle for him and he lost.
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"In 2020, instant polls showed that viewers believed Biden outperformed Trump during their two debates; Biden was able to confidently get his message across," he wrote. "Assuming Biden and Trump secure their respective nominations, it’s likely that Biden will benefit from lower expectations if he performs competently. (One of the many irritating aspects of horse race politics is that candidates are judged against narratives as much as they are judged against each other.)"
"Everybody already knows both candidates extremely well," he added. "Everybody already knows both candidates extremely well. Both politicians will have had one recent term as president under their belt. Both politicians are fixtures in the news. Many political scientists are already skeptical that debates change voters’ attitudes and behavior, and the percentage of people who might tune in to these debates and learn something fundamentally new about the candidates or their beliefs is going to be vanishingly small."
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