President Biden and former President Donald Trump tentatively agreed Wednesday to face off in an unprecedented early-summer debate more than four months before the Nov. 5 election.
Biden fired the first shot at 8 a.m. sharp, posting on his personal X account: “Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020, and now he wants to debate me again.”
“Well, make my day pal,” added the 81-year-old president.
Biden then added in a separate X post that he had “received and accepted an invitation from CNN for a debate on June 27th.”
“Over to you, Donald. As you said: anywhere, any time, any place.”
Trump responded that he would accept Biden’s proposal, telling Fox News “I’ll be there” and adding that he was “looking forward to being in beautiful Atlanta,” where CNN’s headquarters are located.
In a letter obtained by The Post, the Biden camp ruled out allowing the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates to organize the events, which it has done since the 1988 election cycle.
Instead of three presidential debates scheduled by the CPD for Sept. 16, Oct. 1, and Oct. 9, Biden wants to face off with Trump on a more compressed schedule, campaign chair Jennifer O’Malley Dillon wrote.
The second debate was proposed for early September, “early enough to influence early voting, but not so late as to require the candidates to leave the campaign trail in the critical late September and October period,” O’Malley Dillon explained in the letter, which was first reported by the New York Times.
The Biden team also asked for the debates to be staged inside a television studio with microphones that automatically cut out when the speaker’s time elapses – and no live audience.
“There should be firm time limits for answers, and alternate turns to speak – so that the time is evenly divided and we have an exchange of views, not a spectacle of mutual interruption. A candidate’s microphone should only be active when it is his turn to speak, to promote adherence to the rules and orderly proceedings,” the letter from the Biden team read.
The proposed debates would also exclude Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and any other third-party candidates. The CPD would allow additional candidates to take the stage if they reached a minimum of 15% in polling and were on enough state ballots.
Trump initially responded to Biden’s challenge in a Truth Social post, saying he was “ready and willing” to debate him.
“Crooked Joe Biden is the WORST debater I have ever faced – He can’t put two sentences together! Crooked is also the WORST President in the history of the United States, by far. It’s time for a debate so that he can explain to the American People his highly destructive Open Border Policy, new and ridiculous EV Mandates, the allowance of Crushing Inflation, High Taxes, and his really WEAK Foreign Policy, which is allowing the World to ‘Catch on Fire,” he wrote.
The Trump campaign had long asked Biden to commit to debates earlier in the 2024 cycle.
Trump’s team had initially said the former president would be willing to debate Biden “anytime, anyplace and anywhere,” and had urged the CPD to move its debates up to account for early voting.
The CPD had scheduled its debates for Sept. 16 in San Marcos, Texas; Oct. 1 in Petersburg, Va.; and Oct. 9 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The first debate would have taken place after early voting had already started in some states.
That schedule accounted for “religious and federal holidays, early voting, and the dates on which individual states close their ballots,” CPD had argued.
After Biden said he would debate Trump in an interview with Howard Stern last month, the 45th president’s advisers challenged the incumbent to debate sooner — without CPD involvement.
“We extend an invitation to every television network in America that wishes to host a debate, and we once again call on Joe Biden’s team to work with us to set one up as soon as possible. The American people deserve it,” campaign consiglieres Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles wrote in a statement.
As late as Tuesday night, the CPD had not heard from either campaign about coordinating on the debates, commission co-founder Frank Fahrenkopf said on a reporter call with centrist group No Labels.
Biden’s team agreed with Trump about the need to have debates before early voting, despite it aiding the president in the 2020 election.
“The commission’s failure, yet again, to schedule debates that will be meaningful to all voters — not just those who cast their ballots late in the fall or on Election Day — underscores the serious limitations of its outdated approach,” O’Malley Dillon wrote.
