The Commission on Presidential Debates has refused to accommodate the Trump campaign’s demands for earlier and more frequent confrontations in 2024, sticking to its original schedule of three face-to-face meetings beginning in mid-2024. september.
Two top advisers to the 45th president, Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, sent a letter to the CPD on April 11 stating that Trump, 77, was prepared to debate President Biden “anytime, anywhere and everywhere ”, and supported this earlier. the debates would allow more voters to see a face-to-face encounter before early voting begins.
On Friday, Biden confirmed during an interview with radio host Howard Stern that he would debate Trump after previously hesitating on the issue.
Early Tuesday afternoon, RNC spokesperson Danielle Alvarez told the Post that Wiles and LaCivita’s letter to the CPD was met with “crickets” from debate organizers.
Later Tuesday, the commission told Fox News in a statement: “The CPD criteria… will be applied in early September; subsequently, the Commission will invite qualified candidates to the debate.
“The CPD is continuing its production and broadcast plans on its four debate sites, as also announced on November 20, 2023,” the CPD added.
In response, Wiles and LaCivita said in a statement: “The Presidential Debate Commission’s schedule does not begin until after millions of Americans have already voted. This is unacceptable, and by refusing to move forward with the debates, they are doing a great disservice to the American public who deserve to hear from both candidates before voting begins. President Trump said he would debate Joe Biden anytime, anywhere, and Joe Biden himself just agreed to debate him.
“We are committed to making this happen with or without the Presidential Debate Commission,” they added. “We invite all American television networks that wish to organize a debate and we once again call on Joe Biden’s team to work with us to organize one as soon as possible. The American people deserve it.
The RNC’s relationship with the CPD has been anything but smooth, with the GOP withdrawing from the CPD in April 2022 due to its bias favoring Biden.
At the time, then-RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel pledged to “find new and better debate platforms to ensure that future candidates are not forced to go through biased CPD in order to make their case to of the American people.”
However, new RNC Chairman Michael Whatley told Newsmax Tuesday morning that the organization was “working” with the commission.
“We still have criticism of the commission, as stated in the letter we sent to them,” Alvarez said. “We believe that the debates should begin before the vote begins. But more importantly, the debates should take place, period.
The CPD has scheduled three presidential debates: September 16 in San Marcos, Texas; October 1 in Petersburg, Virginia; and October 9 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
A vice presidential debate is scheduled for September 25 in Easton, Pennsylvania.
Neither the Biden campaign nor the Democratic National Committee have provided additional details about the president’s willingness to debate since his Friday remark.
The Commission on Presidential Debates did not respond to multiple inquiries from The Post.
New York Post
