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President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will go head-to-head in a debate moderated by on June 27 and another by ABC News on Sept. 10.
The news broke shortly after Biden’s campaign announced that it was rejecting the schedule set forth by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, which has conducted presidential debates since 1988, and instead proposing two separate dates ahead of November’s election. If the two camps are able to hammer out the specifics for the late-June debate, it would mark the earliest general election presidential debate in modern history.
In a letter to the commission, Biden’s campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon cited several reasons for breaking with tradition, including the fact that the scheduled debates would take place too late in the process – an issue Trump has been criticizing for months.
The commission had scheduled the first debate for Sept. 16 in Texas, the second on Oct. 1 in Virginia and a third on Oct. 9 in Utah. But early voting begins in September for at least four states, including Illinois, Minnesota, South Dakota and Virginia.
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Moreover, O’Malley Dillon said, the debate style promoted “huge spectacles” instead of “good debates,” and that in previous presidential elections the commission was “unable or unwilling to enforce the rules.”
Trump has been clamoring to debate Biden for months, repeatedly saying that he’s prepared to go head-to-head with him “anytime and anywhere” – and in as many debates as possible.
But the offer from Biden’s campaign came with certain stipulations. For one, they want the debate to occur at a TV studio, with no audience present other than a single moderator, and with microphones that automatically turn off when a speaker’s time elapses. And they want the debate to feature only Biden and Trump, leaving out Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other third-party candidates.
Notably, the debate proposition from the Biden camp comes as polling shows him underwater to Trump in crucial swing states. A set of polls released earlier this week by The New York Times, Siena College and The Philadelphia Inquirer found that Trump was ahead among registered voters in a head-to-head matchup against Biden in five of six key states: Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and Pennsylvania. Biden led in only one battleground state, Wisconsin.
“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,” Biden said in a video posted to X, formerly Twitter. “Well, make my day, pal. I’ll even do it twice.”
Responding on his social media site, Truth Social, Trump said he’d be happy to debate Biden so that the president can explain to voters his policies on the migrant crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, taxes and inflation and eclectic vehicles – all areas where Trump has been highly critical of Biden.
“I am Ready and Willing to Debate Crooked Joe at the two proposed times in June and September,” Trump said. “I would strongly recommend more than two debates and, for excitement purposes, a very large venue, although Biden is supposedly afraid of crowds.”
“Just tell me when, I’ll be there. ‘Let’s get ready to Rumble!!!’”
Trump’s campaign officials are also pushing for debates in July and August.
Of course several obstacles stand in the way, chief among them, coming to an agreement over ground rules. It’s unclear whether Trump will agree to certain stipulations regarding the microphone given his notorious performances during the 2016 and 2020 presidential debates in which he flouted rules and repeatedly spoke out of turn.
O’Malley Dillon suggested a second debate should be held in early September, and that to maintain political balance, the debates should be moderated by news organizations that hosted both a Republican primary debate in 2016 featuring Trump and a Democratic primary debate in 2020 featuring Biden.
