Debating over debates: Campaign tradition faces skepticism

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — With the fall campaign rapidly approaching, the time-honored tradition of debates as a forum for voters to evaluate candidates may be the latest casualty of the nation’s polarized political climate. For some Republicans, eschewing debates is a chance to sidestep a media structure some in the party deride as biased and align with Donald Trump, who has blasted presidential debates. Some Democrats have pointed to raucous GOP debates from the primary season as a reason to avoid tangling with their opponents. Veteran political consultant Terry Sullivan defends debates as “the one forum where candidates are forced into answering questions that they don’t want to answer.”