Looking Toward Tuesday’s “Debate” Between the Prosecutor and the Felonious Traitor

The one element we lack at Angry Bear is regular woman commenters and/or a woman writer. I have searched and asked. Explained it does take time and you are exposed to silly or rude comments. It is a different perspective coming from women. A perspective I can not present.

In my title for this post, “Looking Toward” does not mean “Looking Forward to.”

I wish VP Harris did not have to face Trump, inevitably elevating him by her presence. (There’s still a chance he’ll invent a reason not to appear–perhaps a conspiracy or made-up story–but I know he realizes he has to try to change the narrative in which she’s gaining and he’s losing.)

His handlers are obviously kinda worried about this appearance, as more and more people (except The New York Times, the Washington Post, and their buddies, perhaps) are recognizing how increasingly incoherent he is.

Harris and her team wanted an open microphone so that Trump’s rantings, lies, and likely racist and misogynistic remarks could be heard. Trump said he wanted an open mic, but his handlers wouldn’t agree.

Ninety minutes? That long? I have not seen Trump act presidential for 90 seconds.

Fallon added: “The Vice President is ready to deal with Trump’s constant lies and interruptions in real time. Trump should stop hiding behind the mute button.”

However, the open mic appears to have been such a threat to Trump and his people–because it would have allowed Harris to “prosecute” the case against him–that it’s now become a moot/mute point(!) Harris and her team believed Trump would pull out if they insisted the mics remain open, so they acquiesced.

A completely muted mic will limit Harris’s ability to unsheathe her powerful epee against Trump, and that’s a shame.

ABC insists the rules are the same as the ones that were agreed to for the Biden-Trump debate that changed everything.

Days ago, Trump won a coin flip made virtually, which immediately evoked my questions concerning who supervised that flip and in what environment. He chose to make the closing remarks.

May those remarks be as clear as his recent response to a questioner at the Economic Club of New York who asked whether he has a plan for government support for childcare. If you haven’t seen his answer, please watch below.

Saujani later called Trump’s answer “incomprehensible at best. At worst, outrageously offensive to the millions of families drowning in costs.”

We must hope that the moderators, David Muir (anchor of ABC’s World News Tonight and managing editor) and Linsey Davis (ABC News Live primetime anchor) are as good questioners as Saujani was–and that they are more engaged than Dana Bash and Jake Tapper were during the Biden-Trump fiasco.

CNN had reportedly instructed Bash and Tapper to do no instantaneous fact-checking, but it seemed to me they were simply trying to get through the questions. I recall their thanking Trump politely after he made one blatant lie after another.

Admittedly, the fact that Trump knows no boundaries and appears incapable of speaking truthfully makes him a difficult person to moderate–or debate.

Harris’s campaign has suggested that her intention is to introduce herself to this large audience, depict Trump as unfit for office and remind everyone how bad life was during his four years, and present her plans for the future.

I’ve heard commentators anticipate that Harris will spend most of her time engaging with the moderators and the audience–and very little time correcting Trump’s lies or rising to his bait. She may, however, needle him a bit.

As for substance, the Harris/Walz campaign had provided a list of issues on Americans’ minds prior to Trump’s recent visit with his pal Sean Hannity on Fox. I think this list is good, and I hope ABC News finds a way to include at least some of these items, phrased as they see fit.

And in view of the Supreme Court’s outrageous ruling in behalf of Trump’s immunity to nearly everything, which has prompted President Biden to advocate for Supreme Court reform, I hope this huge concern will also be raised during the 90-minutes on Tuesday.

What questions would you like to hear put to both Harris and Trump next Tuesday night? I hope, too, the moderators will ask Harris and Trump what they feel is the significance that former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter, Liz, a former member of Congress and co-chair of the January 6th Committee, both announced they will vote for Vice President Harris.

I never thought Dick Cheney, the staunchest of staunch conservative Republicans, a man whom I’ve long thought of as evil incarnate, could do anything that would make me smile. This move has. I’ve no doubt that it’s good for our country.

So, Donald, what will you say about the uber-hawk Dick Cheney’s supporting the candidate you’ve claimed that world leaders will treat “like a play toy”? Obviously, he thinks she’s a helluva lot tougher than you are.

Annie