President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump agreed on Wednesday to hold two campaign debates, the first on June 27 hosted by CNN and the second on September 10 presented by ABC, preparing for their first presidential discussion in just over a month.
The swift agreement on the scheduling came after the Democrat said that he would not participate in the neutral committee that has organized the fall presidential debates for over three decades. Biden’s campaign instead urged that media outlets sponsor debates between the presumptive Democratic and Republican nominees.
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The debate comes so early on the political calendar that neither Biden nor Trump will have publicly accepted their party’s nomination.
Hours later, Biden announced that he had accepted an offer from CNN, adding, “Over to you, Donald.” Trump, who has previously stated that he would debate Biden at any time and from any location, said on Truth Social that he would also attend, adding, “Let’s get ready to rumble!!!” Soon after, they agreed to a second discussion on ABC.
“Trump says he’ll arrange his own transportation,” Biden wrote on X, taking aim at the benefits of incumbency. “I’ll bring my plane, too.” I plan to keep it for another four years.”
Each of the two unpopular contenders believes he can outperform his opponent in a head-to-head showdown, as evidenced by the speed with which they put together their pairings. Trump and his staff believe the debates will increase voters’ concerns about Biden’s age and competency, whereas Biden’s campaign believes Trump’s sometimes heated rhetoric will remind voters why they voted him out of the White House four years earlier.
The presidential debates, traditionally a watershed occasion on the political calendar, could be especially crucial this year, when voters are dissatisfied with their options and have raised concerns about the candidates’ advanced ages—BBiden is 81 and Trump is 77.
The adversaries traded barbs on social media, with both claiming victory in their last meeting in 2020.
“Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020, and he hasn’t appeared in a debate since,” Biden wrote on X. “Now he is acting as if he wants to debate me again. “So, make my day, pal.”
Trump, for his part, described Biden as the “worst debater I have ever faced. He can’t put two sentences together!”
Expected events include the likely conclusion of Trump’s criminal hush money trial in New York, Biden’s foreign trips to France and Italy, the end of the Supreme Court’s term, and the anticipated start of two criminal trials for the president’s son, Hunter Biden.
CNN said that the discussion would take place at 9 p.m. ET in its Atlanta studios with no audience present, breaking with prior custom. CNN announced that hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash will serve as moderators. Anchors David Muir and Linsey Davis will moderate the event, although ABC did not specify the venue. Disagreements over moderators and guidelines were among the issues that inspired the creation of the Commission on Presidential Debates in 1987.
Following years of complaints and perceived slights, the two campaigns and television networks held weeks of informal talks on how to circumvent the commission’s grip on presidential debates, according to two people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Biden’s team had recommended banning third-party candidates, such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., from the debates entirely. According to the debate commission’s guidelines, Kennedy or other third-party candidates may qualify if they obtained sufficient ballot access to claim 270 electoral votes and polled at 15% or above in a number of national surveys.
CNN and ABC announced the identical qualification threshold, stating that contenders must receive at least 15% in four different nationwide surveys of registered or likely voters that fulfill their criteria.
In response, Kennedy said that Biden and Trump were “trying to exclude me from their debate because they are afraid I would win.” He stated, “Keeping viable candidates off the debate stage undermines democracy.”
The debates will mark the first time individual networks broadcast general election matches. The major networks of the day co-hosted the 1960 discussions, demonstrating the medium’s ability to impact public opinion. The League of Women Voters arranged the presidential debates in 1976, 1980, and 1984 before the commission’s founding in 1987.
The details of the vice presidential debate are still unknown.
Trump has advocated for more and earlier debates, believing that voters should be able to see the two candidates face off before early voting begins in September. He has even suggested holding a debate outside the Manhattan courthouse, where he is currently facing trial. He has also mocked Biden at some of his events with an empty lectern.
In a memorandum to Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon on Wednesday, Trump senior campaign advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles challenged Biden to agree to at least two additional debates, proposing one per month in June, July, August, and September, in addition to a vice presidential debate.
“Additional dates will allow voters to have maximum exposure to the records and future visions of each candidate,” they stated.
Trump later said on Truth Social that he had agreed to a third debate, hosted by Fox.
“Please let this truth serve as proof that I hereby agree to debate Crooked Joe Biden on FoxNews.”The date will be Wednesday, October 2nd. The hosts will be Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum. “Thank you, DJT,” he wrote.
O’Malley Dillon replied in a statement, accusing Trump of “a long history of playing games with debates: complaining about the rules, breaking those rules, pulling out at the last minute, or not showing up at all.”
“No more games.” There should be no more misunderstandings or discussions about debates. We’ll see Donald Trump on June 27th in Atlanta, assuming he shows up,” she said.
In an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Wednesday morning, Trump expressed his own misgivings about Biden’s attendance and made his own proposals. He stated that debates “should go two hours” with both men standing, and he advocated for larger venues.
“It’s just more exciting,” he explained.
Biden’s team has long nursed a grievance against the impartial commission, claiming it failed to apply its rules consistently during the 2020 Biden-Trump contests, most notably by failing to enforce its COVID-19 testing requirements on Trump and his entourage.
AP AUDIO: Biden and Trump agree on debates in June and September, but figuring out logistics could be difficult.
AP According to Washington writer Sagar Meghani, President Biden and Donald Trump appear to have reached an agreement to arrange two debates.
In a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates on Wednesday, O’Malley Dillon echoed the Trump campaign’s criticism by stating that Biden’s team objected to the commission’s suggested debate dates in the fall, which would take place after some Americans started voting. She also expressed anger with previous rule infractions and the commission’s insistence on hosting the arguments in front of a live audience.
She stated, “We should conduct the debates for the benefit of American voters, watching on television and at home—not as entertainment for an in-person audience with raucous or disruptive partisans and donors.”
Having objected to technical concerns during his first debate with Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 and been furious when the Republican contracted COVID-19, Trump also harbored little affection for the commission. The Republican National Committee has already pledged not to cooperate with the commission in the 2024 elections.
On May 1, the Trump campaign issued a statement saying of the commission’s debate schedule: “This is unacceptable.”
The panel declared on Wednesday that “the American public deserves substantive debates from the leading candidates for president and vice president.” It stated that its goal is “to ensure that such debates reliably take place and reach the widest television, radio, and streaming audiences.”
