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By Flynn Nicholls
US News Reporter
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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is pushing for a Fox News-hosted debate against his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, but scheduling a debate on the right-leaning network is not without risks.
On Sunday, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he would debate Harris on Fox News on September 4, with another debate scheduled for September 10 on ABC.
Later that day, a Harris campaign aide told Newsweek in an email: "We're pleased Trump finally agreed to debate the vice president on ABC after previously trying to back out. We are open to another debate, and we'll continue those conversations. But to be clear, any additional debate would be subject to Trump actually showing up on September 10. We're not playing his games."
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Newsweek asked three leading experts in presidential debates, rhetoric and political science about the potential pitfalls of a Trump-Harris debate on Fox News, and some warned that it could backfire.
'The Buttigieg Effect'
Todd Graham, a professor of debate at Southern Illinois University, said Harris could have more to gain than Trump from a Fox debate because it would give her the opportunity to speak directly to a right-leaning audience.
Graham mentioned Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as an example of a high-ranking Democrat who has given successful interviews on the network.
"One reason for Harris to debate on Fox is what I'll call the Buttigieg effect. Every time he goes on Fox, he converts more and more of their viewers," Graham said. "But wow, do you have to be just perfect in order to accomplish that."
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He said voters are likely to perceive the moderators chosen by Fox as biased, referencing the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit, where the network paid the voting machine company a record $787.5 million settlement after saying its anchors knowingly endorsed and promoted Trump's lie that Dominion machines were switching votes from Trump to Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
The network's owner, Rupert Murdoch, said hosts Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro, Lou Dobbs and Sean Hannity all endorsed the false claim, rather than just hosting guests espousing it as a view.
Fox News has proposed Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum as debate moderators.
Debate Likelihood and Conditions
Ben Voth, a professor of rhetoric and the director of debate and speech at Southern Methodist University, said the conditions under which any debate took place were critical.
Voth added that the debate dynamics had shifted from the original schedule set by the Commission on Presidential Debates to what is now essentially a private negotiation between the two campaigns and the networks.
"It is, for example, unlikely that the Trump campaign will allow George Stephanopoulos of ABC to moderate the debate. Reciprocally, the Democrats are unlikely to allow Sean Hannity to moderate the debate," he said.
Trump is suing ABC and Stephanopoulos on accusations of defamation. Trump said Stephanopoulos defamed him by saying he raped E. Jean Carroll.
In May 2023, a New York jury found Trump liable for sexual assault and battery against Carroll, but not for rape.
A New York judge later dismissed a counterclaim by Trump against Carroll, writing, "Mr. Trump in fact did 'rape' Ms. Carroll as that term commonly is used and understood in contexts outside of the New York penal law."
Trump has agreed to the ABC debate on September 10, despite the lawsuit against the network and Stephanopoulos, which is set to go to a jury trial.
"Depending upon which network were to serve as host, the public will perceive the debate to be somewhat skewed in favor of one side—Harris or Trump," Voth said, adding that perceived bias was unlikely to reduce the viewership, which he predicted would exceed 50 million.
Public Perception and Network Influence
The influence of the host network on public perception is another concern raised by the experts.
Alan Schroeder, a professor emeritus at Northeastern University's School of Journalism, argued that a Harris-Trump debate on Fox News seems implausible because of the network's alignment with the Republican Party.
He emphasized that the focus of any presidential debate should remain on the candidates, not the sponsoring network, and expressed concern that Fox News might not be able to maintain the necessary neutrality.
"I cannot imagine a Harris-Trump debate on Fox News," Schroeder said. "The mainstream networks like ABC would be better suited to hosting a debate, in my opinion."
Schroeder also said that neither Trump nor Harris is far enough ahead in the polls to risk skipping a debate, suggesting that both sides will likely come to an agreement.
However, he predicted that the Harris campaign would push for a format similar to the CNN-hosted debate between Trump and Biden in June, with no live audience and muted microphones for the candidate not speaking, to mitigate some of the advantages Trump might gain from a more boisterous setting.
The Risk of Overconfidence
While Voth said Trump has shown a propensity for taking on "unusually antagonistic situations" and even thriving in them, Graham cautioned that the Republican has more to lose in a Fox debate.
Graham said that if Trump performs poorly, he and his supporters will likely blame the moderators, particularly if the debate is hosted by ABC or NBC. Yet, if Harris performs well on Fox, she could reach an audience that is generally more sympathetic to Trump, signaling a significant win for her campaign.
Correction 8/13/2024 10:41 a.m. ET: This story was updated to make clear that Fox News had proposed Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum as debate moderators.
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