Andrew:
I returned it to you this month!!! What's happened to your sense of time?

The Associate:
I agree with your acquaintance that it was ironic, for free speech seems to be a pre-requisite for debate. Perhaps saying that your friend expects a debator to have an ideological commitment to freedom of speech is a stretch, for I wager he expects a debator to at least respect the idea of free speech, even if he doesn't have an ideological commitment to it.

If freedom of speech weren't a pre-requisite for debate, then it would be possible to knock down opponents not by refuting their points sensibly, but by saying that points were "immoral", "ridiculous", "racist" or the like, and making them untenable for scoring purposes.