Jun 26, 2024 - 18:55
By huffpost.com

11 Questions We Desperately Want The Candidates To Answer At The First Presidential Debate

This article is part of HuffPost’s biweekly politics newsletter. Click here to subscribe .

Here we go. On Thursday night, Americans will see the first televised debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump of the 2024 election cycle.

It’s never easy to conduct these sorts of conversations, given how much politicians want to avoid tough questions and spin the truth in their favor. It’s especially difficult when one of the men onstage has such a penchant for incivility and dishonesty. (Yes, we mean Trump.)

Adding to the burdens, the stakes in this election couldn’t be higher. A change in the White House could dramatically alter, well, everything. Even the future of American democracy could depend on whether the instigator of Jan. 6 gets to return to the White House.

Somehow, the debate will have to cover all of this (or at least a lot of it) in 90 minutes — including two commercial interruptions.

So, yes, the pressure is on. But the moderators, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, can perform a real public service by asking questions that get at what really matters to voters ― and that reveal the two men’s true values and intentions, or at least their temperaments.

And yes, that includes some questions that just plain go for the jugular. In an election cycle this momentous, voters deserve to hear candidates directly confront things like how each president’s policies may have contributed to the political environment that led to the Israel-Hamas war; or whether Trump really believes abortion allows women and doctors to kill newborn babies . We’ve gotta get right to things.

Here are a few suggestions from our staff on what they could ask.