Biden and Trump agree to two presidential debates in June and September 4:11am May 16, 2024
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have agreed to hold two campaign debates ahead of the US Election.
The first will be on June 27 hosted by CNN and the second on September 10 will be hosted by ABC in the USA — setting the stage for the first presidential face-off in just weeks.
The quick agreement on the timetable to meet followed the Democrat's announcement that he will not participate in fall presidential debates sponsored by the nonpartisan commission that has organised them for more than three decades.
Biden's campaign instead proposed that media outlets directly organise the debates with the presumptive Democratic and Republican nominees, with the first to be held in late June and the second 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 accepted an invitation from CNN to a debate in June, adding, “Over to you, Donald.”
Trump said on Truth Social he'd be there, adding, “c!!” And soon after that, they agreed to the second debate on ABC.
“Trump says he’ll arrange his own transportation," Biden wrote on X.
“I’ll bring my plane, too. I plan on keeping it for another four years.”
Still, the two sides appeared to be hold some differences on key questions of how to organise the debates, including agreeing on moderators and rules — some of the very questions that prompted the formation of the Commission on Presidential Debates in 1987.
It said moderators and other details would be announced later.
“The debates should be conducted for the benefit of the American voters, watching on television and at home — not as entertainment for an in-person audience with raucous or disruptive partisans and donors," she said.
”As was the case with the original televised debates in 1960, a television studio with just the candidates and moderators is a better, more cost-efficient way to proceed: focused solely on the interests of voters."
There was little love lost for the commission as well from Trump, who objected to technical issues at his first debate with Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 and was upset after a debate with Biden was cancelled in 2020 after the Republican came down with COVID-19.
The Republican National Committee had already promised not to work with commission on the 2024 contests.
The Trump campaign issued a statement on May 1 that objected to the scheduled debates by the commission, saying that the schedule “begins AFTER early voting” and that “this is unacceptable” because voters deserve to hear from the candidates before ballots are cast.
O’Malley Dillon said the debates "should be one-on-one, allowing voters to compare the only two candidates with any statistical chance of prevailing in the Electoral College – and not squandering debate time on candidates with no prospect of becoming President.”
“Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020, since then, he hasn’t shown up for a debate,' 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, pal.”
