President Joe Biden's campaign on Friday rejected two additional debates that former President Donald Trump's campaign had said it had agreed to.
One was a proposal for the presidential election. Discussion hosted by NBC News and Telemundo. The other was for a vice presidential debate hosted by Fox News at Virginia State University, a historically black university.
“I have accepted my fourth presidential debate with the unscrupulous Joe Biden, this time on NBC and Telemundo,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday afternoon. “As Republicans, it is important that we win in our great Hispanic community. Biden has devastated them with crippling inflation, soaring gas prices, crime on the streets, and chaos at the border.…This All this in addition to accepting an invitation from Fox News' Bret Bayer and Martha McCollum to host a vice presidential debate at Virginia State University or another venue in Virginia (to be announced at a later date). Thing”
An NBC News spokesperson confirmed that the network had invited both sides to a debate.
President Trump's acceptance of a debate that would likely reach a larger Latino and Black audience is a boost to the Biden campaign, which has struggled to connect with these communities critical to the 2020 presidential election. That seems to have been partly the aim.
A Biden campaign official said, “Discussion regarding the debate is over.'' “I don't need any more games.”
The Trump campaign slammed Biden's decision in a statement Friday night.
“The Telemundo and NBC debates will be widely watched by Hispanic voters, but Biden's leaders are afraid to defend his disastrous record,” campaign spokesman Daniel Alvarez said in a statement. ” he said. “Crooked Joe Biden is too 'cowardly' to address the Hispanic community and respond to his failures on the debate stage!”
This week, the Trump and Biden campaigns agreed to hold two presidential debates, bypassing the traditional process through the Commission on Presidential Debates. The first will be hosted by CNN in Atlanta on June 27th, and the second will be hosted by ABC News on September 10th, with locations yet to be determined. A decision is made.
The Biden campaign has also accepted an offer for a vice presidential debate hosted by CBS News, but the Trump campaign has so far not accepted it, instead accepting another competing offer for the debate from Fox News.
Neither the Trump campaign nor CBS News responded to requests for comment Friday about the status of the debate.
Biden campaign officials said in a letter regarding the debate terms they had accepted that the campaign was leaving open the door for CNN or ABC News to partner with Telemundo, Univision or another Spanish-language channel. Stated.
CNN announced there would be no studio audience for the debate.
At each of the two presidential debates, candidates must meet certain requirements to take the stage. These include being on the ballot in enough states to get at least 270 electors, accepting the “rules and format of the debate,” and at least gaining support. 15% in four national polls of registered voters or potential voters.
The debate came together quickly in public on Wednesday. After the Biden campaign challenged Trump to break from the commission's tradition of holding debates on college campuses and host two debates in television studios, the Trump campaign quickly agreed.
But the agreement stems from informal negotiations between the Republican and Democratic opponents that began after Biden said in an interview with radio host Howard Stern late last month that he would be “happy” to debate Trump. This was done after discussion.
Campaign chairwoman Jen O'Malley Dillon also said in a statement Wednesday that “there will be no further discussion of the debate.”
“President Biden has made clear the terms of two one-on-one debates, and Donald Trump has accepted those terms,” he said in a statement. “No more games. No more confusion, no more discussion about arguments. If Donald Trump shows up, we'll see you in Atlanta on June 27th.”
jake trailer and Olympia Sonnier contributed.
