Newsom hardly has to bother. The Demoncrat anointee could livestream themselves raping a baby 24 hours a day to every screen in the state and still win in a landslide. He almost certainly has designs on bigger offices and is just a tad afraid ducking might come back to haunt him in the far future. So he’ll tolerate this one debate but it’ll be locked down as much as possible.
Didn’t all the experts, pundit’s, journalist and political hacks say the same about Trump? It’s a long shot I admit, but I’m not ready to throw in the towel as fast as you seem to. Plenty of time after the election for that.