America has questions for Kamala Harris and Donald Trump

NEW YORK: Vice President Kamala Harris, now the likely Democratic nominee, has the chance to encourage and embrace the kind of close examination that the public so far has had little opportunity to witness during the 2024 race. Americans deserve a campaign that tests the strengths and weaknesses of the candidates; that highlights their differences and allows scrutiny of their plans; that motivates people to vote by giving them a clear account of how their choice in this election will affect their lives.

Americans deserve the opportunity to ask questions of those who are seeking to lead their government. There are promising signs in the early days of Ms. Harris’s candidacy. She has bounced onto the campaign trail with a sense of joyful purpose, seizing the opening to reintroduce herself. She has begun to detail the dangers of a second Trump presidency and to delineate her differences with Donald Trump, while describing her vision for a country where people have the support they need to prosper.

But she needs to do more, and she needs to do it quickly. Ms. Harris ought to challenge Mr. Trump to a series of debates or town halls on subjects of national importance, such as the economy, foreign policy, health care and immigration. Mr. Trump claims that he is ready and willing to participate in debates once Democrats have officially selected a nominee. Americans would benefit from comparing the two candidates directly.

Both candidates need to start taking questions from reporters, too. Candidates have abundant opportunities to speak directly to voters, through social media and tightly controlled public appearances, without the mediation of journalists. Most voters, however, will never be able to speak directly with candidates. President Biden has rarely granted the news media permission to ask questions on behalf of the American people, and on the rare occasions he did, his team sometimes sent scripted questions. It left him poorly prepared for the campaign trail and for confronting his opponent. Mr. Trump, too, rarely takes questions. Ms. Harris has the chance to do better.

Engaging with voters is especially important for Ms. Harris because she would be the first major-party presidential candidate in modern times who did not pass through the state primary process, in which voters have a chance to take the measure of candidates and to ask questions about the issues that matter most to their communities.

Ms. Harris’s candidacy does not require legitimation. She is the clear choice of her party. An Ipsos poll this week found that 89 percent of Democrats supported her running as the party’s nominee. But addressing small crowds in small places and answering questions from local reporters are rituals during the primaries for a reason. Unlike large public rallies, they are occasions for encounters on equal footing, and they are an education for the candidate as much as for voters.

With debates and town halls, Ms. Harris would also have an opportunity to draw an even starker contrast with Mr. Trump. Presidential campaigns increasingly are conducted as performances before a sympathetic audience, one that is invited to watch and listen but not to question or respond. The false intimacy of social media gives the impression that candidates are more present than ever in the lives of their supporters, but those relationships are one-way streets. Candidates are seen by the electorate but they do not see; they are heard but they do not hear.

Mr. Trump, who speaks mostly about Mr. Trump, is an extreme example of this tendency — and it is a perfect embodiment of his politics. If Trump campaign officials were reluctant to have their candidate appear at large outside rallies in the wake of the assassination attempt against him, no one would question that fear. His campaign, however, continues to exist primarily as a series of long, winding speeches that offer no insight into how he would end the war in Ukraine or how he would solve the crisis at the border, two of the many goals he has promised to accomplish if re-elected. The former president has barely been pressed on important policy questions or offered any concrete plans.

Both candidates say they are running for office to help ordinary Americans. One way for Americans to judge those claims is by their campaigns. Good leaders speak, and they listen. They welcome scrutiny. They accept responsibility. Ms. Harris now has a chance to demonstrate that she will be the kind of leader who deserves the nation’s support.