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Let’s be honest. The national news media love the idea of presidential debates. Viewers and voters enjoy the spectacle of debates. What we learn from them, and their impact on who’s nominated and then elected is in the eye of the beholder.
Tonight, with eight GOP contenders on a stage in Milwaukee, and one, the frontrunner, refusing to participate, it could be like a Broadway show in which the star quits and instead stages a one-man improv on what was supposed to be opening night. Maybe someone in the supporting cast steals the show. Or maybe former President Trump steals his rivals’ thunder.
The big question is whether the political world will be talking more about Trump on Thursday morning than the first GOP presidential primary debate. The former president taped an interview last week with Tucker Carlson, intended to compete tonight with Fox News as a posting on X — once known as Twitter. The former president on Thursday also will appear in Georgia for his arraignment, a courtroom drama that is expected to be televised.
Some of the most memorable debates in the past have been between the nominees during the general election, not among the primary contenders. The wonkiest, civil exchanges about policy and issues have tended to involve vice presidential running mates. Those events were not TV ratings bonanzas, but they dug more than an inch deep and were many decibels less abrasive.
Ever since Richard Nixon perspired in 1960 through the first televised back-and-forth with the young, tan John F. Kennedy, debates have been performance art, not cerebral tutorials in governance.
Trump’s brawler style places a premium on rule-busting showmanship. He stalked Hillary Clinton in 2016 around the stage (and into camera view) and said he’d throw her in jail, delighting his supporters with his verbal punch. He duked it out with Joe Biden in 2020 while keeping quiet that he was at the time ill (and infectious) with COVID-19. He interrupted, defied time limits and wandered off-topic with brazen name-calling and innuendo. “Will you shut up, man?” Biden snapped while debating in Cleveland.
Some journalists wrote this week that they won’t miss Trump on stage tonight (The Atlantic). Fox News hosts Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, the moderators of the two-hour Milwaukee event tonight, feel otherwise. They tried during private phone calls and public remarks to nudge the former president into participating.
Baier, during an interview this week with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, tossed both a tease and a taunt Trump’s way.
“I think it’s fair when these other candidates say it’s not a coronation, it’s an election,” Baier said. “[Trump] skipped the 2016 Iowa debate with us and he ended up losing the Iowa caucuses. I’m not saying there’s a direct connection, but people do like to see engagement. He’s very good at it. And I assume he’s going to eventually do one debate.”
Fox News plans to use video clips of the former president as elements in the questioning, which begins at 9 p.m. ET.
Some of the eight debaters plan to knock Trump in absentia. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson have made their respective let’s-save-the-nation-from-Trump entreaties the centerpieces of their campaigns. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who trails the former president in polls and could soon be lapped by businessman Vivek Ramaswamy for second place, would much prefer to talk about the rise of conservative policy in the Sunshine State than the fall of Trump.
The Hill’s Alexander Bolton points out that audiences also scrutinize presidential debates for potential VP picks, which involve different political calculations and performances. One Republican strategist said he sees Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Ramaswamy and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as potential GOP running mates. But the strategist advised that anyone jockeying to be Trump’s nominee must remember the golden rule: Be nice to Trump.
Ramaswamy placates the former president by pledging to pardon him if elected. Noem isn’t running for president because she says no one can beat Trump. But she appears interested. Scott doesn’t criticize Trump. His campaign brand is designed to be sunny and upbeat.
▪ The Hill: Republicans get ready to rumble in Milwaukee.
▪ The Hill: Five things Democrats are watching for during tonight’s debate.
▪ The Hill’s Niall Stanage in The Memo: What each candidate needs to do.
👉 Morning Report’s Kristina Karish is on leave.
Related Articles
▪ The Hill: Ramaswamy battles controversy ahead of pivotal GOP debate.
▪ Politico: With his campaign struggling, DeSantis seeks a big debate win.
▪ Recent reporting traces DeSantis’s focus on education and “parents rights” to propel his conservative political brand (The Associated Press, The New York Times, The New York Times).
▪ The Hill: Trump’s arraignment Thursday in a Georgia courtroom is expected to be televised, as permitted under state law.
▪ The Hill: Former Florida Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D), who lost her seat in 2020, says she will challenge Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott next year.
▪ The Hill: LGBTQ Dems gear up for rematches after narrow 2022 losses.
LEADING THE DAY
Correction to Monday’s newsletter: Tennessee’s governor is Bill Lee.
➤ TRUMP WORLD
© The Associated Press / Patrick Semansky | Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in October 2020.
The legal battles are beginning.
Multiple defendants charged with seeking to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, would like to move trials to federal court in Georgia. Why? Delay, immunity arguments, jury shopping, an absence of cameras — potentially advantageous rationales, according to legal experts (The Hill and The New York Times). Meadows on Tuesday sought to block his formal arrest, ordered by Friday, in Fulton County (The Hill).
▪ The New York Times: How Meadows pursued a high-wire legal strategy with federal prosecutors in the Trump inquiries. It did not help him avoid charges in Georgia.
▪ The Washington Post, opinion by Jennifer Rubin: Why Trump’s Georgia case likely can’t be removed to federal court.
▪ The Atlantic, opinion by Laurence H. Tribe, Donald Ayer and Dennis Aftergut: Don’t let Donald Trump take his case to federal court.
▪ The Wall Street Journal, video interview with David B. Rivkin: “The Law and Donald Trump.”
▪ Politico Magazine, opinion by Kimberly Wehle: Trump says he has immunity. Will the Supreme Court beg to differ?
▪ The Wall Street Journal, opinion by Rivkin and Lee A. Casey: This Trump indictment imperils the presidency.
IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES
➤ ADMINISTRATION
© The Associated Press / Evan Vucci | Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, at the White House in June, is scheduled next week to travel to China.
The State Department on Tuesday imposed visa restrictions on Chinese officials it said are responsible for the forced assimilation of more than one million Tibetan children in government-run schools. It’s a step likely to draw China’s ire ahead of next week’s planned trip to Beijing and Shanghai by Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo (The Hill).
The White House released a promotional video Tuesday for the president’s new SAVE plan for student loan borrowers as a way to encourage sign-ups for possible lower interest rates based on income (The Hill). “If you’re eligible for the SAVE Plan, sign up now so you can lower your monthly payments in advance of payments resuming this fall,” Biden said, directing borrowers to StudentAid.gov/SAVE (Politico).
As anticipated, Biden will participate in the Group of 20 summit hosted by India Sept. 7-10, the White House announced Tuesday (Reuters).
The Justice Department this week settled criminal price-fixing charges against generic drug giants, one based in India and another in Israel. Each paid penalties in exchange for not being charged (The Hill).
Biden named Ed Siskel as his new White House counsel beginning in September. Siskel served as deputy counsel during the Obama years and learned his way around representing the presidency and the president during congressional probes of the Benghazi attack and the Solyndra solar company’s default in 2011 on an Energy Department loan guarantee (The Hill).
OPINION
■ I’m turning 85. Is Alzheimer’s coming for me? by Elaine Soloway, opinion contributor, The Washington Post.
■ We need new laws to combat crypto crimes, by Sam Brown and Erika Kelton, opinion contributors, The Hill.
WHERE AND WHEN
The House will convene for a pro forma session on Friday at 2 p.m. Lawmakers return to Washington Sept. 11.
The Senate is out until Sept. 5 and will hold a pro forma session at noon on Friday.
The president is vacationing in Lake Tahoe, Nev. He has no public events on his schedule.
Vice President Harris is in Washington and has no public events.
ELSEWHERE
➤ STATE WATCH
© The Associated Press / NOAA via AP | Hurricane Hilary was a Category 4 storm on Aug. 18 off the Pacific coast of Mexico.
What created a rare summertime Pacific hurricane that ended as a downgraded storm named Hilary, soaking Mexico and California with record rainfall?
“What causes the warm water in this case is probably mostly the El Niño, and that is natural,” said James Kossin, a former atmospheric scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “But that’s not to say that there isn’t a human fingerprint on it,” he told The Hill. “At this point, there’s a fingerprint on just about everything.”
Los Angeles Time: What put Hurricane Hilary on a collision course with California?
🌀 On Tuesday, Biden said he ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency to send personnel to Texas ahead of Tropical Storm Harold, and to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands ahead of Tropical Storm Franklin, to be ready. In all cases, his statement urged people in the path of the storms to “follow state and local guidance.”
🍟 In central Washington, small town Othello is a boomtown for french fries — as long as the water holds out (The Washington Post).
THE CLOSER
© The Associated Press / Aijaz Rahi | India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft headed to the far side of the moon on July 14 ahead of a scheduled lunar landing today.
And finally … 🌖 Ultimately, what lies beneath — and national pride — are at stake today in India, which will attempt to park an unmanned lunar lander on the far side of the moon. Russia failed in its Sunday attempt.
What’s the rush? Water ice under the moon’s south pole could potentially supply fuel, oxygen and drinking water for future missions and research posts.
“Water is the key for many aspects of living on the moon,” Csaba Palotai, an associate professor of planetary sciences at the Florida Institute of Technology, told The Wall Street Journal. “And the suspicion is that there’s lots of it — that’s why we’re going through these missions to verify how much, exactly, there is.”
India in July launched the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft as a follow-up to a mission four years ago that failed. A successful surface landing would make India the fourth country, after the United States, the Soviet Union and China, to achieve the feat.
🔜 The lander is expected to reach the moon’s surface at 8:34 a.m. ET. The Indian Space Research Organization will livestream from its YouTube channel and website beginning at 7:50 a.m. ET, according to The New York Times. Check out the visuals so far, CNN urges.
▪ The Wall Street Journal: Hopes rise for India to become the first to land on the moon’s south pole.
▪ NBC News: Moon landing anticipation builds for India after Russia’s crash.
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