Who will win the 2020 debates?

[President Phil Scott]

By most accounts, Clinton won all 3 debates in 2016, although there are some rumblings that the performance helped Trump.

How many debates will each nominee win in 2020? Will they be held at all, and will the candidates agree to attend?

[SN2903]

Trump won the 2nd and 3rd debates. The 2nd debate the "you'd be in jail line" was as close as you can get to a "moment" in a debate. The first was a draw with Trump winning the first half and Clinton winning the 2nd half.

[Woody]

Can you imagine a O'Rourke v Trump debate? Trump would mop the floor with him.

[Del Tachi]

By most accounts, Clinton won all 3 debates in 2016, although there are some rumblings that the performance helped Trump.

By traditional inside the Beltway standards of "winning" sure, but television has always been a natural medium for Trump.

I doubt the average voting layperson who watched the debate came away thinking that Clinton had resoundingly won.

[Kyle Rittenhouse is a Political Prisoner]

Can you imagine a O'Rourke v Trump debate? Trump would mop the floor with him.

Please, be something less than 100% hackish for a moment. O'Rourke is intelligent and personable. Trump is nuts.

[History505]

How about we get a Dem nominee first?

[Progressive Pessimist]

Again, I don't like to be too confident in predicting things about the 2020 election this early on, but Trump is such a poor, incoherent debater. I don't see that changing. So it's reasonable to assume that nearly any Democrat can beat him again. It doesn't really matter though because debates don't matter. It's a damn shame because three times people saw Trump babble his way through word salad, constantly make awkward sniffing noises, come across as frustrated and nervous, and many still voted for him.

[SN2903]

Again, I don't like to be too confident in predicting things about the 2020 election this early on, but Trump is such a poor, incoherent debater. I don't see that changing. So it's reasonable to assume that nearly any Democrat can beat him again. It doesn't really matter though because debates don't matter. It's a damn shame because three times people saw Trump babble his way through word salad, constantly make awkward sniffing noises, come across as frustrated and nervous, and many still voted for him.

Don't underestimate incumbency. Trump is good on TV.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Again, I don't like to be too confident in predicting things about the 2020 election this early on, but Trump is such a poor, incoherent debater. I don't see that changing. So it's reasonable to assume that nearly any Democrat can beat him again. It doesn't really matter though because debates don't matter. It's a damn shame because three times people saw Trump babble his way through word salad, constantly make awkward sniffing noises, come across as frustrated and nervous, and many still voted for him.

Don't underestimate incumbency. Trump is good on TV.

No. Trump has no natural presence unless he is in front of one of his sycophantic, rabid crowds, and that won't be the case at the debates. He is a deeply insecure man who cannot function unless he feels validated. And if incumbency can negatively affect anyone it would be "anti-establishment" Trump who is now the very face of the "establishment."

[Florida Man for Crime]

Obviously the nominee, Beto, will win the debates.