Debate 2024: Trump Takes the Bait, but Does It Matter?

Do debates matter? A million thoughtful commentators used to tell you that they did not, right up until the moment Joe Biden’s face melted off his skull during the first 2024 debate like the bespectacled Nazi at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. (“Don’t look at the livestream, Marion!”) So for 2024, at least, I think it’s fair to say that debates matter, especially when there’s only one for the final presidential match-up between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. And in terms of what each candidate desperately needed to accomplish for their campaign, in an election likely to be decided by inches? Kamala Harris narrowly edged the match out.