DE Online Desk
President Biden and former President Donald Trump will go head-to-head in presidential debates on June 27 and Sept. 10, with the two White House hopefuls accepting invitations from CNN and ABC News to participate in the events after a flurry of activity on Wednesday.
Plans for the debates came together quickly after the president’s campaign said in a letter that he was willing to debate his Republican opponent twice before the November election.
That kicked off a series of competing proposals and social media posts from the presumptive Democratic and Republican nominees, culminating in the two debates being scheduled for June and September within a matter of hours.
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Mr. Biden then took to social media to announce that he had accepted an invitation to participate in a debate hosted by CNN on June 27, and urged Trump to join him.
“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,” Mr. Biden said in his post.
CNN then announced it will host the debate between Mr. Biden and Trump at its Atlanta studios on June 27 at 9 p.m. ET. There will not be an audience “to ensure candidates may maximize the time allotted in the debate,” CNN said.
CNN laid out five criteria for qualifying for the debate. The candidates must:
Be constitutionally eligible to serve as president
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File a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission
Have their name appear on enough state ballots to reach the threshold of 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency
Agree to the debate’s rules and format
Receive at least 15% in four separate national polls of registered or likely voters that meet CNN standards.
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Mr. Biden and Trump are the only two candidates seeking the presidency who qualify under those terms so far. It’s unlikely that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who is running as an independent, will be on the stage because of the polling requirement and number of states where he has secured access to the ballot.
The CNN debate is set to take place before the Republican and Democratic nominating conventions, when party delegates choose their respective presidential nominees.
Mr. Biden then announced that he had received and accepted an invitation to a second debate hosted by ABC News on Tuesday, Sept. 10. Trump quickly said he will also attend. His campaign is also pushing for two more debates in July and August.
Kennedy reacted to the debates by accusing the two candidates of “colluding to lock America” into a rematch of the 2020 election and criticized them as being unpopular.
“They are trying to exclude me from their debate because they are afraid I would win. Keeping viable candidates off the debate stage undermines democracy,” he said in a social media post.
How the debates came together
In the letter from the Biden campaign sent earlier Wednesday, Jen O’Malley Dillon, chair of the president’s reelection campaign, proposed one debate in late June, after the likely conclusion of Trump’s ongoing criminal trial in New York and Mr. Biden’s travel to the G7 Summit in Italy. Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records to allegedly cover up payments to an adult film star and has pleaded not guilty. The Biden campaign proposed a second debate in early September.
Trump seemed to swiftly accept the Biden campaign’s suggested debate schedule for June and September, writing on social media that he is “ready and willing” to debate his Democratic opponent at the two proposed times. But the presumptive GOP presidential nominee said he would “strongly recommend” more than two debates at a “very large venue.”
“Just tell me when, I’ll be there,” Trump wrote.
In his own video shared to social media, the president urged his Republican opponent to take him on.
“Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020, and since then, he hasn’t shown up for a debate. Now he’s acting like he wants to debate me again. Well, make my day, pal. I’ll even do it twice. So let’s pick the dates, Donald. I hear you’re free on Wednesdays,” Mr. Biden said. Trump’s criminal trial does not convene on Wednesdays.
In addition to specifying Mr. Biden’s plans for facing off against Trump, O’Malley Dillon said the president will not participate in debates sponsored by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, which has overseen presidential debates since 1988.
Instead, Mr. Biden would take part in debates hosted by news organizations, O’Malley Dillon said. She cited what she said was the commission’s unwillingness to enforce rules for candidates during the 2020 debates and the large audiences in attendance that disrupted the events.
During the 2020 presidential campaign, the first debate between Trump and Mr. Biden descended into chaos as Trump repeatedly interrupted and spoke over Mr. Biden and moderators struggled to regain control of the event.
Mr. Biden clinched the Democratic presidential nomination and Trump secured the Republican nomination in mid-March, setting up a rematch of the 2020 contest for the White House.
The Commission on Presidential Debates said the sites it announced in November to host three presidential debates this year are prepared for the events. The commission said it is also ready to execute its plan for the debates.
“The American public deserves substantive debates from the leading candidates for president and vice president,” it said in a statement. “The nonpartisan [CPD] was established in 1987 specifically to ensure that such debates reliably take place and reach the widest television, radio and streaming audience.”
The commission’s three presidential debates were scheduled to take place in September and October at universities in Texas, Virginia and Utah.
