President Joe Biden has proposed two debates with Donald Trump, throwing down the gauntlet in a video message aimed at his rival, taunting him with “I hear you’re off on Wednesday.”
Trump, who is in his fourth week of a hush money trial in New York, is required by the judge to be present in court for testimony. Wednesday is the only day the court is not in session.
Biden is proposing that their first presidential debate will take place in late June and the second will take place in September before early voting begins. He proposes a vice presidential debate in July.
‘Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020. He has not appeared at a debate since. Now he’s acting like he wants to debate me. Well, now it makes my day, I even do it twice. So let’s choose the days Donald. I hear you’re free on Wednesday,” he says in the video.
President Joe Biden challenged Donald Trump to two debates
But the catch is that Biden proposes using a different system than in the past. He wants news organizations to host the debates and not use the traditional system overseen by the Commission on Presidential Debates.
His campaign informed the committee on Wednesday that Biden will not participate in their debates.
“The purpose of this letter is to announce that the President will not participate in the announced 2024 Commission on Presidential Debates debates and that he plans to participate in debates hosted by news organizations,” campaign manager Jen O’ wrote Malley Dillon.
O’Malley Dillon points out that the committee’s debate schedule has the debates taking place after early voting has already begun.
She also complains that the debates have become ‘a big spectacle with a large audience’.
Biden’s reelection team has raised concerns about the committee’s inability to enforce the rules in the 2020 debate, especially when it came to Trump.
In their first debate, hosted by Fox News, Trump repeatedly interrupted Biden during Biden’s allotted speaking time and did not stop — even when moderator Chris Wallace urged him to do so.
At one point, Biden said to Trump, “Will you shut up, man?”
O’Malley Dillon noted in her letter, “The Commission included rules for candidates to follow, and yet was unable or unwilling to enforce the rules in the 2020 debates.”
She outlines a plan in which a news network that “hosted a 2016 Republican Primary debate in which Donald Trump participated, and a 2020 Democratic primary debate in which President Biden participated” would host the debate.
The moderator would be “selected by the presenter from among the permanent staff, to avoid a ‘ringer’ or biased.”
The Biden campaign also wants time to be split evenly and for a candidate’s microphone to be on only when it is his turn to answer.
This would be to prevent Trump from speaking about Biden, as he often did during their 2020 meetings.
Donald Trump has said he will debate Joe Biden ‘anytime, anywhere’
“We believe that the first debate should take place in late June, after Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York is likely to be over and after President Biden returns from meeting with world leaders at the G7 summit,” said O’Malley Dillon about their debate schedule.
“A second presidential debate should be held in early September, at the start of the fall campaign season, early enough to influence early voting, but not so late that candidates have to hit the campaign trail in the critical period of late September and October.” to leave. ‘
Previously, Biden had been vague about debating Trump. In March, he said that whether he would debate Trump “depends on his behavior.”
In addition to Trump’s interruptions, Biden and his team were furious over the failure to enforce COVID protocols surrounding the first presidential debate, which took place during the height of the pandemic.
Hope Hicks, a top Trump aide, tested positive for COVID ahead of the debate. Trump said after the debate that he was positive. The second debate was canceled because it was scheduled for a time when Trump would still be considered contagious.
Trump has said he is willing to debate Biden “anytime, anywhere.”
The committee scheduled its debates for September 16, October 1 and October 9.
The Trump campaign has also complained about that data.
In April, Trump’s co-campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita wrote a letter to the committee asking for earlier debates, noting that “voting is starting earlier and earlier, and as we saw in 2020, tens of millions of Americans had already voted by the time of the election. the first debate.’
“By the date of the first proposed debate, September 16, 2024, more than 1 million Americans will likely have voted,” Wiles and LaCivita wrote. “By the date of the second proposed debate, October 1, 2024, the number of Americans likely to have cast a vote will be more than 3 million, an increase of 225%.”
Joe Biden’s team has raised concerns about the committee’s inability to enforce the rules in the 2020 debate, especially when it came to Donald Trump, who repeatedly interrupted Biden’s speaking time – over the two men during a debate in Cleveland in September 20202.
During the 2020 election, Biden and Trump debated twice.
More than 73 million people watched the two men during their first debate – down from the 84 million who watched Trump take on Hillary Clinton in 2016.
But presidential debates are typically among the most-watched broadcasts of the year, beating out events like the Oscars.
One television network is the host, and the event is typically simulcast on every major cable and broadcast network.
If no elections take place, this year’s elections could be the first in fifty years without a debate between the candidates for the general election.