NEW YORK—Grateful he was able to avoid what surely would have been a humiliating defeat, New Yorker editor David Remnick quietly expressed relief Tuesday that he wouldn’t have to lose a debate to Steve Bannon next month in front of everyone attending his magazine’s fall festival. “Man, I really dodged a bullet there,” said Remnick, adding that he was in way over his head in attempting to interview the former White House strategist, and that Patton Oswalt, Judd Apatow, and others who threatened to cancel their festival appearances in protest “really saved my ass” by providing an excuse to back out. “For months, I’ve been sweating bullets, thinking about how I could possibly hold my own against a guy who pushed for a Muslim ban and tried to get Roy Moore elected to the Senate. Seriously, he would have absolutely wiped the floor with me. It could have destroyed my reputation.” At press time, sources confirmed Remnick was making plans with Bannon to lose the debate in a more traditional journalistic setting.