The New York Times opinion section is now publishing Ann Coulter.
Mr. Bruni is a contributing Opinion writer. Ms. Coulter is the author of the Substack newsletter Unsafe. Mr. Stevens is a former Republican political consultant.
Frank Bruni, a contributing Opinion writer, hosted an online conversation with Ann Coulter, who writes the Substack newsletter Unsafe, and Stuart Stevens, a former Republican political consultant, to discuss their expectations for the first Republican debate and the future of American politics.
Frank Bruni: Stuart, I’ve done many of these political roundtables, but never one at a juncture this titanically and transcendentally bizarre. The first Republican debate of the presidential election season is tonight, the party front-runner is absent, and he’s running, oh, infinity points ahead of his Republican rivals despite two impeachments, 91 felony counts and unquantifiable wretchedness. Color me morose.
But also, illuminate me: Given Donald Trump’s lead and its durability, does this debate matter, and how? Is there an argument that it could change the trajectory of this contest?
To put it bluntly, Coulter has made a career out of spouting provocative sound bites. She was once a huge fan of Trump, but soured on him after he failed to build The Wall among other things. Coulter has been obsessed with immigration for years — as well as blaming Liberals for everything she sees as wrong with America.
It appears Bruni chose to talk to Stevens because of his advice to Romney on how to destroy the other candidates in debates, and Coulter because she’s rabidly anti-Trump. Stevens is mildly interesting; Coulter is just unhinged.
Bruni joined with Stuart Stevens, a former GOP political consultant who had advised Mitt Romney, and Ann Coulter, who they describe simply as the writer of the Substack newsletter Unsafe. No mention of her extensive bibliography:
Bruni: Ann, in just a few sentences, why won’t Trump be the nominee? That’s a renegade perspective. (Or, given recent Republican political history, should I say maverick?) Convince me.
Coulter: Trump can barely speak English. He’s a gigantic baby. The only reason he crushed in 2016 is because of immigration — the wall, deport illegal immigrants, the travel ban (which imposed limits on travel from several predominantly Muslim countries).
