Thread by @djrothkopf

I've been doing a little thinking about the kind of questions that need to be asked at the upcoming debates. If you happen to be moderating one of them, you should really ask these:

--Mr. President, you've been accused of rape and sexual abuse dozens of times. @ejeancarroll has asked for your DNA. If you too the 30 seconds necessary to provide it, it could exonerate you. Why don't you take the test?

--The NY Times and others have made a compelling case that you have been lying about your wealth and guilty of tax fraud. Releasing your tax returns would immediately prove you were not. Why don't you release your tax returns?

--The Washington Post has reported that you have lied over 20,000 times since taking office. Why do you lie so often? Since each of these lies has been carefully documented, why should people trust anything you say?

--Bob Woodward reports that you knew how dangerous COVID was as early as January & yet you repeatedly & publicly dismissed the threat, resisted testing, suppressed data, promoted quack cures & undermined scientists. 200,000 are dead. Isn't your willful negligence a crime?

--You repeatedly say voting by mail leads to voter fraud. Yet there is not one single piece of evidence that supports that assertion. Can you give us any evidence to support your claim?

--For three years you have said you were about to reveal your health care plan. Yet you never offer any details. Your opponent has been clear about his plan. What's yours? Go on--name one detail from it.

--You have been reported by multiple sources as having repeatedly denigrated our troops. How can you credibly expect voters to believe you are an appropriate choice to be commander in chief when that is the case? How can they believe your denials when you're a proven liar?

--You said in Helsinki that you believed Russian intelligence sources rather than the unanimous conclusions of the FBI or the US intelligence community. Why? Why do you regularly take Russia's side, going as far as not punishing them for a putting a bounty on US soldiers?

--Have you or your organization ever received any funding from a Russian organization? From the Saudis? Be specific. Do you believe voters should support you if you did and then lied about it?

--You repeatedly say Mueller exonerated you. He did nothing of the sort. It indicated multiple instances of obstruction of justice by you and that it could not proceed with the conspiracy case because your administration refused to cooperate with it. Why do you lie about this?

--You have said you don't believe science knows the truth about climate change. You have said similar things about COVID. Why should voters believe you know better than scientists who devote their lives to the objective study of these issues?

--Will you release your academic grades? Did you get someone to take your SAT tests for you?
--Why won't you release records related to your health?
--Do you know what the emoluments clause to the Constitution is? You have repeatedly violated it. Isn't that corrupt?

--What do you mean Democrats will destroy the suburbs? Isn't this part of a long pattern of racism that has included your support for white supremacists? There are multiple reported instances of you using racist slurs. Do you believe a proven racist like you should be president?

--What did you mean when you said that if you didn't count deaths in blue states, the COVID death toll would be acceptable? Why wouldn't you count deaths in blue states? Are the deaths of those who oppose you politically somehow more acceptable?

--Do you know what the 22d amendment to the Constitution says? Do you know it limits you to two terms? Do you know you can't negotiate a third term? Why do you repeatedly say you will?

--If you serially violate the law, how can you be trusted to be the chief magistrate of the nation?
--Do you believe members of your administration owe their first loyalty to you or to the Constitution?

--Do you believe in the First Amendment? Why then is it ok to turn federal forces against peaceful protestors?
--Your administration has produced more indictments against its members and those associated with it than any other. Shouldn't this disqualify you from another term?

--Your family has profited from its high offices--including those gained inappropriately via nepotism. Isn't that corrupt?
--You said you wouldn't play golf. You have spent a third of your presidency at Trump properties & played more golf than any POTUS ever. How's that ok?

--Polls show America's standing in the world has plummeted to its lowest levels ever. You are ranked around the world as the worst leader of a major country. Historians regularly rank you as the worst president in our history. Isn't it about time to pack it in?

These may seem over-the-top, contentious. But not asking them, not confronting him about these egregious problems with his presidency gives him a pass, normalizes him by implicitly saying we're over them, they don't matter any more. It is not a journalist's place to do that.

Journalists must raise these questions because they are about the defining issues of this presidency. Anything less than that is malpractice.

And should they ask the toughest questions they can think to @JoeBiden? Of course.

But you see Biden isn't a corrupt, traitor, serial sex abuser, racist, unfit, incompetent, science-denying, pathological liar, narcissist, threat to our democracy.

And it is the role of these debates to make that distinction as clear as possible.