WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden on Friday signaled a willingness to debate former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, ahead of the November election, a reversal of his previous reluctance.
In an interview with radio talk show host Howard Stern, Biden was asked if he would debate Trump, saying, “I'll be there somewhere, I don't know when, but I'd be happy to debate him.” he said.
The Biden campaign has not announced whether Biden will participate in the debate. President Trump has for weeks said he would debate Biden “anytime, anywhere” and ridiculed Biden for refusing to commit.
The commission has scheduled three presidential debates and one vice presidential debate in September and October. The first presidential debate is scheduled for September 16th at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas.
Earlier this month, the Trump campaign called on the Commission on Presidential Debates to add more debates and move the fall date forward as soon as possible, presumably by the time more than 1 million Americans have already voted by the first debate. I pointed out that there would be.
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“Now is the time to begin these discussions,” the campaign wrote in a letter to the bipartisan committee on April 11.
The Biden campaign has rejected Trump's repeated requests for an early debate, saying the former president was playing political games. “If I were him, I'd want to debate, too. He doesn't have anything else to do,” Biden told reporters in February.
Trump refused to debate his Republican opponent in the Republican primary because there was no serious threat to his path to the Republican nomination.
In 2022, the Republican National Committee has ordered the Commission on Presidential Debates to select candidates for 2024 unless changes are made to moderator selection or debate scheduling before early voting begins in any state. announced that they would not be participating. Trump had claimed the committee was biased against him during his 2020 campaign with Biden.
In a joint statement on April 14, 12 news organizations, including USA TODAY, called on potential party candidates Biden and Trump to publicly commit to participating in a public debate before the election.
Contributor: David Jackson
Contact Joey Garrison at X (formerly Twitter, @joeygarrison).
