Trump, Biden Agree To June Presidential Debate On CNN

Update (1148ET): After a morning of geriatric shit talking, President Biden and former President Trump have agreed to a June 27 debate hosted by CNN.

The date means that the two will debate before either candidate’s nominations are formally complete, and will be their first televised encounter since 2020.

The debate will be held in CNN’s studio in Atlanta, per Axios, citing a network announcement. No audience members will be present, per the Biden campaign’s demands.

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President Biden on Wedensday says he won’t participate in the decades-old tradition of three fall debates by the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, and has proposed two televised debates in June and September – with no audience, RFK Jr. can’t participate, and Trump’s mic will be muted when Biden is speaking. Oh, and they can only be hosted by a regime-friendly network.

Outlined in a video message and a letter to the commission, Biden called for direct negotiations between his campaign and the Trump campaign over rules, moderators, and network hosts for the one-on-one debates. He proposed a separate VP debate in July, after the Republican nominating convention and before the Democratic nominating convention.

“Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020, and since then he hasn’t shown up for a debate. Now he is acting like he wants to debate me again. Well, make my day, pal. I’ll even do it twice,” Biden said in a video released Wednesday, poking fun at Trump’s trial schedule in which the former President is free on Wednesdays. “So let’s pick the dates, Donald. I hear you’re free on Wednesdays.”

According to Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon, the commission’s proposed schedule and difficulty in keeping candidates from violating debate rules are the reason for the proposal, the Washington Post reports.

“The Commission’s model of building huge spectacles with large audiences at great expense simply isn’t necessary or conducive to good debates,” she wrote in a letter. “The debates should be conducted for the benefit of the American voters, watching on television and at home — not as entertainment for an in-person audience with raucous or disruptive partisans and donors, who consume valuable debate time with noisy spectacles of approval or jeering.”

Here’s the notice. https://t.co/peSh2ZW0ZX pic.twitter.com/hBcUBHp27o

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) May 15, 2024

Trump responded to the challenge, telling Fox News’ Brooke Singman “I’m ready to go…The dates that they proposed are fine…Let’s see if Joe can make it to the stand-up podium,” adding “The proposed June and early September dates are fully acceptable to me. I will provide my own transportation.”

EXCLUSIVE: @realDonaldTrump tells me:

“I’m ready to go…The dates that they proposed are fine…Let’s see if Joe can make it to the stand-up podium.”

“The proposed June and early September dates are fully acceptable to me. I will provide my own transportation.”

— Brooke Singman (@BrookeSingman) May 15, 2024

Trump and the RNC have also shown interest in ditching the commission, which has held presidential debates since 1988. They have already scheduled three presidential and vice presidential debates starting on Sept. 16, as well as a presidential candidate meeting in Texas that would have been simultaneously broadcast by major networks.

“Let’s set it up right now,” Trump told Biden in a May 9 video posted to Truth Social. “I’m ready to go anywhere that you are.”

The two camps will conduct extensive negotiations over the coming weeks, with Biden’s team requesting that only broadcast networks which hosted Republican primary debates in 2016 and Democratic primary debates in 2020 should be eligible to host – meaning CNN, ABC News, Telemundo and CBS News.

To that end, Biden has ‘received and accepted an invitation from CNN for a debate on June 27th.’

I’ve 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.

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 15, 2024

As far as moderators go, Biden’s team has proposed that the host be picked from networks’ “regular personnel,” and that the actual debate have firm time limits on answers, equal speaking time, alternative turns to speak, and microphones that are only active during each candidate’s turn.

DEBATE: Biden’s debate challenge to Trump came with fine print:

• No live audience
• RFK Jr. is banned
• Trump’s mic is muted when Biden speaks
• Only hosted by NPR, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, or CBS
• Moderated by Democrat-aligned reporter pic.twitter.com/ST4ZKTcMFA

— @amuse (@amuse) May 15, 2024