President Joe Biden gave the strongest indication Thursday that he plans to debate former President Donald Trump.
Biden hosted the Las Vegas Aces in the East Room on Thursday afternoon, the team that won the WNBA Finals in October.
As he was walking out, he was asked when he would debate Trump.
“Set it up,” the president ordered as he left the room.
Earlier Thursday, Trump himself told Biden to “get everything ready now” in a pre-recorded video he shared with Truth Social, which was posted online as he sat in court to listen on the second day of porn star Stormy Daniels’ testimony in the hush money case.
President Joe Biden said Thursday he had “organized things” when asked when he might debate former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican Party nominee.
Earlier Thursday, Trump said on Truth Social that he was ready to debate President Joe Biden ‘wherever you are’
“We could do it in Washington, even in the White House, or in New York when your radical left-wing fascists are done with election interference against your political opponent, me,” Trump said in the pre-recorded video, published on Truth Social. while he was in court
“I’m ready to go wherever you are,” Trump said of a debate. “We could do it in Washington, even the White House, or in New York when your radical left-wing fascists are done with election interference against your political opponent, me.”
Trump has long claimed that his litany of legal problems were politically motivated against him.
The ex-president drew attention to comments Biden made about what Trump called the “viewership-contested Howard Stern show.”
In a surprise interview with Stern late last month, Biden indicated he would debate Trump.
“I am, somewhere. I don’t know when,” the president said. “But I’m happy to debate him.”
Asked Thursday evening aboard Air Force One whether Biden was serious about debating Trump, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said she couldn’t really answer because of the Hatch Act.
“All I can do is refer you to the president’s statement and also to the president’s campaign, I don’t even want to set foot there, I have to be very attentive,” Jean-Pierre said.
The Commission on the Presidential Debate announced in November the dates and locations for the three planned presidential debates and one vice-presidential debate, which will begin in mid-September.
Trump said he wanted them sooner.
And last week, his campaign managers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles made this complaint official by saying that “the calendar does not begin until millions of Americans have already voted.”
“This is unacceptable, and by refusing to move the debates forward, they are doing a great disservice to the American public who deserve to hear from both candidates before voting begins,” LaCivita and Wiles said.
The CPD responded in a statement emphasizing that the September 16 debate “will be the first televised general election debate ever.”
The committee said only in North Carolina and Pennsylvania will voters be allowed to request and then return absentee ballots at this point.
The CPD also argued that it should schedule the first debate after September 6, the deadline for three states to certify whether an independent candidate can appear on the ballot.
The bipartisan group had established criteria in November under which third-party candidates would only be considered if they appeared on enough ballots in the state to win the Electoral College.
This has been the biggest challenge to independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy’s campaign, as he currently only meets the requirements to appear on a handful of state general election ballots.
Trump and Biden faced off twice during the 2020 election cycle.
The second debate was abandoned after Trump caught COVID-19 and refused to participate virtually.
dailymail us
