Opinion Today: The question we need answered at the presidential debate

The world is on a volatile path, which makes one presidential responsibility even more urgent.

View in browser|nytimes.com June 17, 2024 By Kathleen Kingsbury Opinion Editor The moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash of CNN will have many vital questions for Donald Trump and President Biden when they meet for the first presidential debate on June 27. The American public is owed an in-depth discussion across a wide range of policy concerns. The U.S. nuclear arsenal should be on that list. Tensions between the United States and China are growing, and the Pentagon expects China to double its nuclear stockpile to some 1,000 warheads by 2030. President Vladimir Putin of Russia seems to invoke nuclear warfare on a nearly weekly basis amid the conflict in Ukraine. Last week he unexpectedly moved tactical nuclear drills that Russia was conducting with its ally Belarus closer to NATO's borders. The United States, China and Russia are modernizing their nuclear capabilities. This month, a senior national security official in the Biden administration left the door open for the first expansion of American nuclear weapons since the 1980s. The world is on a volatile trajectory, with nuclear weapons looming over international politics in ways not seen since the Cold War. My questions, then, to Biden and Trump would be: To combat these rising threats from Russia and China, is it time to increase the U.S. nuclear weapon stockpile? Would such an expansion make Americans more or less secure? Again, Biden and his team are already considering this step. With his recent felony conviction, Trump can no longer legally own a gun. Should he be re-elected president come November, however, he will have the power to launch a nuclear weapon without any oversight. Voters deserve to understand how both of these candidates would approach this massive responsibility. 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