More than a dozen major media outlets released a statement this morning asking President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump to commit to a presidential debate.
“If there’s one thing Americans can agree on during this polarized time, it is that the stakes of this election are exceptionally high,” the joint April 14 statement states. “Amidst that backdrop, there is simply no substitute for the candidates debating with each other, and before the American people, their visions for the future of our nation.”
The Associated Press, CBS News, CNN, Fox, News Nation, USA Today, ABC, NBC, PBS, NPR, and C-SPAN are among the media outlets that released the statement.
The call comes at the heels of baited comments former President Trump made at a campaign rally on April 13 in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania, toward President Biden about debating him.
“I’m calling on Crooked Joe Biden to debate anytime, anywhere, any place,” he said, conjuring up a swell of cheers from supporters. “We have to debate because our country is going in the wrong direction so badly. While it is a little bit typical early, we have to debate, we have to explain to the American people what the hell is going on.”
President Trump made similar comments at his April 2 campaign speech in Green Bay, Wisconsin. “You can see we have an empty podium right here to my right. You know what that is? That’s for Joe Biden,” President Trump said.
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At both appearances, to drive his point home, President Trump pointed to a mic standing holding a Trump-branded sign that read, “Anytime. Anywhere. Anyplace.”
He also stated at a Georgia campaign event that “it was for the good of our nation” for President Biden to agree to a debate.
The Biden administration, on other hand, have bucked calls for a presidential debate, citing concerns it would not be a “fair” bout given the uncertainty of who will host a matchup between the current president and former president in their bid for The White House.
The day after his March 8 State Of The Union address last month, Biden brushed off questions by reporters about President Trump’s continued challenge to a debate by saying “it would depend on his behavior.”
In 2020, the two engaged in two very heated debates.
They were peppered with personal and political assaults, with the former vice president saying to President Trump at one point, “Will you shut up, man.”
While Republicans have razzed President Biden for not debating the former president, Democrats leaders have cautioned President Biden not to climb on stage for a political spar with the MAGA leader.
Mr. Durbin clarified that his advice was based on not giving President Trump an opportunity to spread his “extremism” rather than concern that President Biden wouldn’t be able to stand up to President Trump in a match.
At the same time, Democrats leaders are running damage control for President Biden by pointing out that President Trump refused to debate any of his GOP rivals for the party nomination in the primaries—just as he did in 2016 before going on to eventually win the presidency.
Recently, in a televised interview, President Biden’s former chief of staff, Ron Klain, said he believes the president would be “certainly happy to debate President Trump if the MAGA candidate ”would agree to the right set of basic instructions that his predecessor has agreed to.”
Mr. Klain said President Trump “broke the rules everywhere he could” during the 2020 debate between him and President Biden.
“Last time, ”it was more of a spectacle than a debate,” he said.
Not having two committed candidates has not thwarted The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) from scheduling presidential debates.
According to its website, it has already slated three, 90-minute debates, with its “first presidential debate” scheduled for Sept. 16 at Texas State University in San Marcos.
A second debate is scheduled for Sept. 25 at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, and a third at The University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Oct. 9—just a few weeks ahead of the general election.
The commission has also scheduled a vice presidential debate for Sept. 25 at Lafayette College in Easton even though President Trump has yet to announce his pick for a running mate.
“The United States’ general election debates, watched live worldwide, are a model for many other countries: the opportunity to hear and see leading candidates address serious issues in a fair and neutral setting,” CPD co-chairs Frank Fahrenkopf and Antonia Hernandez said in a recent statement on the presidential debates.
The CPD, founded in 1987, emphasizes itself as a nonpartisan organization that receives no government funding.
The CPD said all the debates will begin at 9 p.m. Eastern standard time without commercial interruption, with the moderators and format to be announced.
In their call to the two presidents to pledge to participate in presidential debates, the national media organizations cited the historic tradition of presidential debates in imploring the presumptive nominees to engage in “general election debates before November’s election.”
“General election debates have a rich tradition in our American democracy, having played a vital role in the very presidential election of the past 50 years, dating to 1976. In each of those elections, tens of millions tuned in to watch the candidates debating side by side, in a competition of ideas for the votes of American citizens,” they wrote.
The increasing pressure for presidential debate has incited a hailstorm of debate of its own on social media.
In an April 11 post on X, Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) said the real reason President Biden hasn’t committed to debating President Trump is because he knows his mental cognitivism is too much in decline.
“He can’t even get through a brief press conference without scripted answers,” he posted.
Biden supporters in response scoffed at the idea that the former president would beat the president in a debate. An anti-Trump website TheSocialTruth—a reverse of the former president’s Truth Social platform—said in an April 14 post, “Trump knows if he debates, he’d fall apart and Biden would wipe the floor with him.”
