Biden campaign REFUSES to commit to the 2024 presidential debates: Top official says they will look at 81-year-old’s schedule and will have ‘conversations’

A top Biden campaign official was non-committal on Wednesday about President Joe Biden's participation in the general election debates.

Quentin Fulks, the top deputy campaign manager for the Biden-Harris campaign, was asked if the president would be willing to participate now that the Commission on Presidential Debates has released a schedule.

Fulks, former Democratic Alabama Senator Doug Jones and Alabama State Representative Barbara Drummond held a news conference in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where the fourth Republican primary debate will be held later Wednesday evening on the University of Alabama campus.

“Ultimately, we are focused on building a campaign. We will have those conversations,” Fulks said.

When a reporter pointed out that this sounded like a “no,” Fulks revised his statement but still did not commit Biden to participating in the trio of scheduled debates.

Quentin Fulks (right), the top deputy campaign manager for the Biden-Harris campaign, remained noncommittal about President Joe Biden's participation in general election debates as he briefed reporters in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on Wednesday.

Ex-President Donald Trump (left) and President Joe Biden (right) shared the debate stage twice in 2020, with Trump withdrawing from the second general election debate when the Commission on Presidential Debates wanted it to take place virtually following his COVID case

“No, I said the campaign is going to look at the schedule, we're going to have this conversation, but as of now our focus is on building a campaign and infrastructure while Republicans remain in a divisive primary. Where their frontrunner does not attend the debates, our campaign focuses on what we need to do to win elections,” he said.

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican frontrunner, skipped all four of the Republican Party's primary debates and instead provided counterprogramming.

This time, Trump opted to headline a town hall with Fox News' Sean Hannity on Tuesday night instead of participating.

At the same time, the former president has said he wants to debate Biden.

“We need to debate,” he told Fox News' Bret Baier during their June interview. “He and I should definitely debate. That's what I like. The two of us need to debate.”

In 2020, Trump and Biden faced each other on stage twice.

However, Trump withdrew from the second scheduled general election debate because the Commission on Presidential Debates wanted to hold it virtually in the wake of Trump's COVID-19 case.

The then president refused.

Last month, the Commission on Presidential Debates, the long-standing bipartisan presidential debate planning group, announced the 2024 debate dates as September 16, October 1 and October 9.

The trio of debates would be held at Texas State University in San Marcos, Virginia State University in Petersburg, Virginia and the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

The vice presidential debate was scheduled to take place on September 25 at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania.

While Trump may be eager to participate should he win the Republican nomination, the Republican National Committee has criticized the Commission on Presidential Debates over the group's handling of the 2020 debates and is urging the Republican nominee not to to participate.

Democrats have also grumbled about the Commission on Presidential Debates, charging that the group didn't play by its own rules when it came to Trump's behavior.