The phrase "a debate with a" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when referring to a discussion or argument involving a specific person or group.
Example: "The senator engaged in a debate with a prominent environmentalist about climate change policies."
Alternatives: "a discussion with a" or "an argument with a".
That it's easier to stay quiet than risk a debate with a Hanson supporter.
This week, in Washington, he took part in a debate with a trade-union leader on global unemployment.
Or a debate with a mate about which body part to photograph for an online dating profile.
If the organizers' intent was to facilitate a debate with a living specimen of the new far right, it failed.
He fell into a debate with a professor from the Harvard Dental School, who did not have his facts straight.
In the summer of 2001, Mr. Easterling had a debate with a client about whether investors should expect to achieve long-term average returns in the future.
As a debate with an inflation truther grows longer, the probability of them asking how inflation could be low when some prices are rising faster than the average of all prices approaches one.
(Look, it's very stressful being snarled up in a debate with an 11-year-old about whether a goodnight kiss given before YOU turn the light out still counts as an official goodnight kiss).
George Galloway, the Respect MP for Bradford West and an open opponent of Israel, has organised convoys to Gaza and was praised by many of his voters after refusing to engage in a debate with an Israeli student at Oxford University earlier this year.
The clip was followed by a debate with an MP using the Human Rights Act to take his dog to work.
In an era of reality TV shows and other in-front-of-a-live-audience programming, a debate with an absent or silent crowd is also a tough sell, too sedate and silent for today's tastes.
