President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have agreed to participate in two debates ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
However, the Biden campaign has set several conditions that must be met for these debates to proceed. The restrictions were outlined in a letter from Biden’s campaign to the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD).
Biden’s social media announcement featured a confident challenge to Trump, stating, “Make my day,” while confirming his willingness to debate. The campaign’s letter to the CPD highlighted a few critical limits aimed at ensuring the debates are conducted without an audience.
Firstly, the Biden campaign criticized the CPD for making debates “huge spectacles with large audiences” and proposed that the debates take place in a television studio with only the candidates and the moderator present. The goal is to focus on the interests of voters rather than entertain in-person audiences with partisan reactions.
The debates are also to be strictly one-on-one, excluding third-party candidates like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who poses a significant threat to Biden by attracting Democratic voters. The campaign argued that the debates should allow voters to compare the only two candidates with any realistic chance of winning the Electoral College.
Additionally, the Biden campaign specified that the debates should be hosted by networks that previously hosted debates for both Trump and Biden in the past elections. This limits the potential hosts to CNN, ABC, CBS, and Telemundo, ensuring that neither campaign can claim bias from the hosting network.
Another significant restriction is the proposal to mute candidates’ microphones once their allotted speaking time expires. This measure aims to prevent interruptions and ensure orderly proceedings, a problem that marred the 2020 debates.
Despite these restrictions, Trump accepted the debate offer, with the first encounter scheduled for June 27 to be hosted by CNN. Trump expressed his readiness, urging for more than two debates and advocating for large venues, despite Biden’s preference for smaller, controlled settings.
