The Potemkin 2024 Presidential Debate Commission

The Commission on Presidential Debates announced three dates and locations Monday for the televised extravaganzas it plans in 2024, but the real question is whether anyone will show up. The public can benefit from well-run debates that put White House candidates on the same level, but the commission’s position appears precarious.

Every four years since 1988, this nonprofit group made up of big political names has sponsored presidential debates. Yet Republicans have recently complained that events start too late in the year to attract early voters and that moderators frame their topics and questions using Democratic assumptions. Last year, the Republican National Committee voted to stop cooperating with the commission.