Biden and Trump agree to two presidential debates

The first will be on June 27 hosted by CNN, and the second on September 10 will be hosted by ABC in the US – setting the stage for the first presidential meeting in just weeks.

The quick agreement to schedule a meeting followed the Democrat’s announcement that he would not participate in the fall presidential debates, sponsored by the nonpartisan committee that has organized them for more than three decades.

Instead, the Biden campaign has proposed that the media directly stage the debates with the presumptive Democratic and Republican nominees, with the former taking place in late June and the latter 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 for a debate in June, adding: “Over to you, Donald.”

Trump said on Truth Social that he would be there, adding, “c!!” And soon after, they agreed to the second debate on ABC.

“Trump says he’ll arrange his own transportation,” Biden wrote on X.

“I will also bring my plane. I plan to keep it for another four years.

Still, the two sides appear to have some differences on key issues about how to organize the debates, including agreeing on moderators and rules — some of the very issues that prompted the creation of the Commission on Presidential Debates in 1987.

The Biden campaign proposed outright excluding third-party candidates, such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., from the debates.

Under debate committee rules, Kennedy or other third-party candidates could qualify if they secured ballot access sufficient to claim 270 electoral votes and receive 15 percent or more of the popular vote in national polls.

CNN said the debate would take place at their studios in Atlanta and that “there will be no audience.”

He said moderators and other details would be announced later.

The network left the door open for Kennedy to run if he or any other candidate met voting and ballot access requirements similar to those of the committee.

As early as Wednesday morning, Trump expressed his desire for a large live audience.

“I would strongly recommend more than two debates and, for excitement purposes, a very large hall, even though Biden is supposed to be afraid of crowds — it’s only because he doesn’t get them,” Trump said.

“Just tell me when, I’ll be there.”

Trump is pushing for more debates and earlier debates, arguing that voters should be able to see the two men against each other long before early voting begins in September.

He has repeatedly said he will debate Biden “anytime, anywhere, any place,” even suggesting the two men face off in Manhattan court, where he is currently on trial in a criminal case for silence. money.

He also mocked Biden with an empty chair at some of his rallies.

The Biden campaign has long held grudges against the nonpartisan commission for failing to apply its rules evenly during the 2020 Biden-Trump matchups — most notably when it failed to enforce its COVID-19 testing rules on Trump and his entourage — and Biden’s team has held talks with TV networks and some Republicans about ways to circumvent the committee’s control of the presidential debates.

Biden campaign chairwoman Jen O’Malley Dillon on Wednesday sent a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates saying the Biden campaign objects to the fall dates chosen by the commission, which come after some Americans start voting, echoing a complaint , also expressed by the Trump Campaign.

She also expressed displeasure at rule violations and the committee’s insistence that the debates be held in front of a live audience.

“The debates should be held for the benefit of American voters, watching on television and at home — not as entertainment for private audiences with loud or disruptive partisans and donors,” she said.

“As was the case with the original televised debates in the 1960s, a television studio with only the candidates and the moderators is a better, more cost-effective way to proceed: focused solely on the interests of the voters.”

Trump has lost little love for the panel, who objected to technical issues in his first debate with Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 and was upset after the 2020 debate with Biden was canceled after the Republican fell ill with COVID-19 .

The Republican National Committee had already pledged not to work with the 2024 nominating committee.

The commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

The Trump campaign issued a statement on May 1 opposing the planned panel debates, saying the schedule “starts AFTER early voting” and that “this is unacceptable” because voters deserve to hear from the candidates before they are ballots released.

O’Malley Dillon said the debates “should be individualized, allowing voters to compare the only two candidates with some statistical chance of winning the Electoral College — and not waste time debating candidates with no prospect of becoming president.”

Kennedy said in a statement that Trump and Biden “conspired to lock America into a head-to-head matchup that 70 percent say they do not want.”

“They’re trying to shut me out of their debate because they’re afraid I’m going to win,” he said.

“Keeping viable candidates off the debate stage undermines democracy.”

In the heat of the debate, both Biden and Trump traded barbs on social media — each claiming victory the last time they faced off in 2020.

“Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020, he hasn’t appeared at a debate since,” 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 my friend.’

Trump called Biden ‘WORST debater I’ve ever faced – He can’t put two sentences together!’

The Democratic president first indicated he would be willing to debate Trump during an interview with radio host Howard Stern last month, telling him that “I’m somewhere. I do not know when. But I’m happy to debate with him.”

Last week, he again indicated he was preparing for a debate, telling reporters as he left a White House event: “Set it up.”