WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump agreed Wednesday to hold two campaign debates in June and September — the first on June 27 hosted by CNN — setting the stage for the first presidential showdown in weeks only.
The quick agreement on the meeting’s schedule follows the Democrat’s announcement that he would not attend in the fall. presidential debates sponsored by the nonpartisan commission that has organized them for more than three decades. The Biden campaign instead proposed that the media directly organize the debates with the presumptive Democratic and Republican candidates, the first taking place at the end of June and the second in September before early voting begins. Trump, in a post on his Truth Social site, said he was “ready and willing to debate” Biden at the proposed times.
Hours later, Biden said he had accepted an invitation from CNN to a debate on June 27, adding: “Over to you, Donald. Like you said: anywhere, anytime, anywhere. » Trump told Fox News Digital that he accepted the invitation: “I’ll be there,” he told the outlet.
Yet the two sides appeared to have significant differences on key issues about how to organize the debates, including agreement on moderators and rules – some of the very issues that led to the formation of the Commission on the presidential debates in 1987.
Biden’s campaign had proposed excluding third-party candidates, such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., debates purely and simply. Under debate commission rules, Kennedy or other third-party candidates could qualify if they gain enough ballot access to claim 270 electoral votes and if they score 15 percent or higher in a selection of polls national.
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CNN said the debate would take place in its Atlanta studios and “no audience would be present.” He said moderators and other details would be announced later. The network kept the door open for Kennedy to participate if he or any other candidate met ballot and ballot access requirements similar to those of the commission.
As recently as Wednesday morning, Trump expressed his desire to have a large live audience.
“I would highly recommend more than two debates and, for excitement, a very large venue, even though Biden is supposedly afraid of crowds – that’s only because he doesn’t understand them,” Trump said . “Just tell me when, I’ll be there.”
Trump has pushed for more and earlier debates, arguing that voters should be able to see the two men face off well before early voting begins in September. He has repeatedly said he will debate Biden “anytime, anywhere and everywhere.” even proposing that the two men confront each other in front of the Manhattan courthouse where he is currently on criminal trial in a silent money affair. He also taunted Biden with an empty lectern at some of his rallies.
The Biden campaign has long resented the nonpartisan commission for failing to uniformly apply its rules during the 2020 Biden-Trump clashes — notably when it failed to enforce its COVID-19 testing rules on Trump and his inner circle — and Biden’s team has held talks with TV networks and some Republicans about ways to get around the commission’s hold on the presidential debates.
AP Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani reports that President Biden and Donald Trump appear to be in agreement on holding two debates.
Biden campaign chairwoman Jen O’Malley Dillon sent a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates on Wednesday to say that Biden’s campaign opposed the fall dates chosen by the commission, which come after some Americans began voting, repeating a complaint also voiced by the Trump campaign. She also expressed frustration with rule violations and the commission’s insistence on holding proceedings in front of a live audience.
“The debates should be conducted for the benefit of American voters, whether watched on television or at home – not as entertainment for an in-person audience surrounded by noisy or disruptive supporters and donors,” he said. she declared. “As was the case with the original television debates in 1960a television studio with only the candidates and moderators is a better and more cost-effective way to do it: focusing only on the interests of voters.”
Nor has Trump lost much love for the commission, which struggled with technical issues during its first debate with Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 and was upset after a debate with Biden in 2020 after the Republican contracted COVID-19. The Republican National Committee had already promised not to work in committee on the 2024 elections.
The commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
The Trump campaign released a statement on May 1 objecting to the commission’s scheduled debates, saying the schedule “starts AFTER early voting” and “this is unacceptable” because voters deserve to hear the candidates before the vote.
O’Malley Dillon said the debates “should be head-to-head, allowing voters to compare the only two candidates with a statistical chance of winning in the Electoral College — and not wasting debate time on candidates with no prospect of becoming president. »
Kennedy, in a statement, said “Presidents Trump and Biden are colluding to lock America into a standoff that 70% say they don’t want.” They are trying to exclude me from their debate because they are afraid I will win. Keeping viable candidates off the debate stage undermines democracy.”
The Biden campaign also proposed that the Biden-Trump debates this year be hosted by “any broadcast organization that hosted a 2016 Republican primary debate in which Donald Trump participated, and a 2020 Democratic primary debate in which the President Biden participated – so neither campaign. I can say that the sponsoring organization is obviously unacceptable: if both candidates have already debated on their airwaves, neither will be able to object to such a venue.
These criteria would eliminate Fox News, which did not hold a Democratic primary debate in 2020, and potentially NBC News, which did not hold a Republican debate in 2016 – although its affiliates CNBC and Telmundo co-hosted a debate each that year. .
Kicking off the debates, Biden and Trump traded barbs on social media – each claiming victory in their final showdown in 2020.
“Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020, since then he has not shown up for a debate,” Biden said in a post on X, the site formerly known as Twitter. “Now he’s acting like he wants to debate me again. Well, make my day, buddy.
Trump, for his part, said Biden was “the worst debater I’ve ever faced – he can’t put two sentences together!” »
The Democrat suggested the two candidates could pick dates, focusing on Trump’s secret trial in New York by noting that the Republican is “off on Wednesday,” the trial’s usual day off.
The president first indicated he would be willing to debate Trump during an interview with radio host Howard Stern last month, telling him, “I’m somewhere. I do not know when. But I’m happy to debate him.
Biden again indicated last week that he was preparing to debate, telling reporters as he left a White House event: “Hold it.”
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News Source : apnews.com
