Washington DC: Former President Donald Trump has accepted the challenge to debate with President Joe Biden. Biden had asked for two televised debates in June and September.
But Biden chose two audience-free debates conducted by news organizations over the three debates suggested by the bipartisan US Election Debates Commission. “Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020. Since then, he hasn’t shown up for a debate. Now he’s acting like he wants to debate me again. Well, make my day, pal,” Biden said in a video on X, formerly Twitter.
Biden also trolled Trump over his ongoing criminal hush money trail in New York, which features a mid-week break, adding: “So let’s pick the dates, Donald. I hear you’re free on Wednesdays.” The Democrats and Republicans have been sparring for months over debates, for years a traditional part of any US Presidential election campaign, but there has been uncertainty over whether they would go ahead.
Trump – who avoided any debates with his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination this year — said he was “ready to Rumble!!!” “I am Ready and Willing to debate Crooked Joe at the two proposed times in June and September,” Trump said on his TruthSocial platform.
Despite Biden’s alleged fear of crowds, Trump demanded a “very large venue,” calling Biden “the WORST debater I have ever faced.” In a letter delivered concurrently, Biden’s team informed the US Election Debates Commission that its schedule for three debates in September and October was rejected.
Instead Biden “plans to participate in debates hosted by news organizations,” said the letter from campaign chief Jen O’Malley Dillon. She added that the current, years-old structure was “out of step with changes in the structure of our elections and the interests of voters.”
The letter read “After President Biden returns from meeting with world leaders at the G7 Summit and after Donald Trump’s New York criminal trial is likely to be over, the Biden campaign scheduled the first one-on-one debate for late June”. The second event is set for early September, and according to the Biden team, it will happen in time to influence early voting but won’t stop candidates from travelling the campaign road in the “critical late September and October period.”
The letter also recommended strict rules, such as candidates’ microphones being switched off after the allotted time had gone, to prevent candidates from talking over one another during the debates.
