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Election
2024
Live
Updates:
Biden
and
Trump
Aim to
Have Two
Debates
Jonathan
Swan,
Maggie
Haberman,
Jonathan
Weisman,
Chris
Cameron,
Anjali
Huynh,
Maggie
Astor
nytimes.com
President
Biden is
willing
to
debate
former
President
Donald
J. Trump
at least
twice
before
the
election,
and as
early as
June —
but his
campaign
is
rejecting
the
nonpartisan
organization
that has
managed
presidential
debates
since
1988,
according
to a
letter
obtained
by The
New York
Times.
The
letter
by the
Biden
campaign
lays out
for the
first
time the
president’s
terms
for
giving
Mr.
Trump
what he
has
openly
clamored
for: a
televised
confrontation
with a
successor
Mr.
Trump
has
portrayed,
and
hopes to
reveal,
as too
feeble
to hold
the job.
In a
Truth
Social
post on
Wednesday
morning,
Mr.
Trump
quickly
agreed
to the
two
dates
proposed
by the
Biden
campaign,
although
it was
unclear
whether
he would
agree to
Mr.
Biden’s
other
terms.
Mr.
Biden
and his
top
aides
want the
debates
to start
much
sooner
than the
dates
proposed
by the
Commission
on
Presidential
Debates,
so
voters
can see
the two
candidates
side by
side
well
before
early
voting
begins
in
September.
They
want the
debate
to occur
inside a
TV
studio,
with
microphones
that
automatically
cut off
when a
speaker’s
time
limit
elapses.
And they
want it
to be
just the
two
candidates
and the
moderator
—
without
the
raucous
in-person
audiences
that Mr.
Trump
feeds on
and
without
the
participation
of
Robert
F.
Kennedy
Jr. or
other
independent
or
third-party
candidates.
The
proposal
suggests
that Mr.
Biden is
willing
to take
some
calculated
risks to
reverse
his
fortunes
in a
race in
which
most
battleground-state
polls
show the
president
trailing
Mr.
Trump
and
struggling
to
persuade
voters
that
he’s an
effective
leader
and
steward
of the
economy.
It is
the
first
formal
offer by
the
Biden
campaign
for
debates
with Mr.
Trump,
who has
declared
repeatedly
that he
will
debate
his
successor
“anytime
and
anywhere,”
and has
demanded
as many
debates
as
possible.
Mr.
Biden
recently
indicated
he would
debate
Mr.
Trump,
but had
until
now
declined
to give
any firm
commitment
or
specific
details.
The
letter,
signed
by Mr.
Biden’s
campaign
chair,
Jennifer
O’Malley
Dillon,
and
addressed
to the
Commission
on
Presidential
Debates,
notifies
the
group
that Mr.
Biden
will not
be
participating
in the
three
general-election
debates
sponsored
by the
commission,
which
are
scheduled
for
Sept.
16, Oct.
1 and
Oct. 9.
It is a
striking
decision
for Mr.
Biden,
an
institutionalist
who has
tried to
preserve
the
traditions
of
Washington.
Instead,
Ms.
O’Malley
Dillon
writes
in the
letter
that Mr.
Biden
will
participate
in
debates
hosted
by news
organizations.
The move
opens
the
doors
for the
Biden
team and
potentially
the
Trump
team to
negotiate
directly
with
networks
— and
with one
another
— for
possible
debates.
In a
video
announcing
his
offer,
Mr.
Biden
taunted
Mr.
Trump.
“Make my
day,
pal,” he
said,
adding a
reference
to the
one
weekday
Mr.
Trump’s
Manhattan
trial is
generally
not in
session.
“Let’s
pick the
date,
Donald.
I hear
you’re
free on
Wednesdays.
Mr.
Trump,
in his
insult-laden
response,
said he
would
like to
see more
than two
debates
and for
“excitement
purposes,
a very
large
venue.”
Calling
Mr.
Biden
“the
WORST”
debater
and
“crooked,”
he
accused
the
president
of being
“afraid
of
crowds.”
Ms.
O’Malley
Dillon
suggested
that the
first
debate
be held
in late
June, by
which
time Mr.
Trump’s
New York
criminal
trial
should
be
completed
and
after
Mr.
Biden
returns
from the
Group of
7 summit
meetings
with
other
heads of
state.
A second
presidential
debate
should
be held
“in
early
September
at the
start of
the fall
campaign
season,
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,”
she
writes.
The
Biden
campaign
also
proposes
that one
vice-presidential
debate
be held
in late
July
after
Mr.
Trump
and his
running
mate are
formally
nominated
at the
Republican
National
Convention
in
Milwaukee.
For the
president,
early
debates
hold
significant
advantages.
Early
votes
are
crucial,
especially
for
Democrats.
And
polls
show
that Mr.
Biden
currently
trails
Mr.
Trump
and that
his
messages
on core
issues
like the
economy
are not
resonating
with
enough
voters.
In the
2020
election,
Democrats
put a
huge
emphasis
on
voting
early by
mail as
a safe
alternative
to
in-person
voting
during
the
coronavirus
pandemic.
Early
votes
gave Mr.
Biden a
decisive
edge
over Mr.
Trump,
who had
told his
voters
not to
trust
the mail
and to
instead
vote
only on
Election
Day.
Mr.
Trump
and the
Republican
National
Committee
have
tried to
repair
that
damage
this
year by
telling
Republicans
to vote
early.
“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,”
Ms.
O’Malley
Dillon
writes
in the
letter.
Mr.
Trump
leads
Mr.
Biden in
most
polls of
battleground
states,
including
the
recent
surveys
by The
New York
Times,
Siena
College
and The
Philadelphia
Inquirer.
Significantly
more
voters
trust
Mr.
Trump
over Mr.
Biden to
handle
the
economy.
The
Biden
campaign
and the
president’s
White
House
staff
widely
feel
that the
debates
were
important
in 2020,
and that
they
will be
important
again
this
year.
The
Biden
campaign
has been
trying
to
remind
voters
of why a
majority
removed
Mr.
Trump
from
office
in 2020.
People
close to
the
president
have
said
they’re
worried
about
so-called
Trump
amnesia
— that
voters
are
nostalgic
about
Mr.
Trump
and have
forgotten
how
divisive
he was —
and some
of the
recent
polling
underscores
that
point.
A
side-by-side
debate,
which
could
have a
large
viewing
audience,
is the
most
dramatic
way for
the
Biden
campaign
to give
Mr.
Trump
more
exposure,
in their
view.
![](images/fox%20news%20photo%20471-051524.jpg)
A view
of a
person
from
behind
who is
watching
a
Trump-Biden
debate
in 2020
on Fox
News. In
the days
after
the
first
Trump-Biden
debate
in 2020,
Mr.
Trump’s
poll
numbers
fell.Credit...Mark
Makela
for The
New York
Times
In the
first
debate
in 2020,
Mr.
Trump
barely
allowed
Mr.
Biden to
get a
word in.
He was
aggressive
and
constantly
interrupting,
while
sweating
and
appearing
unwell.
Mr.
Biden,
exasperated,
famously
said to
Mr.
Trump,
“Will
you shut
up, man?
This is
so
unpresidential.”
And in
the days
following
that
first
debate,
Mr.
Trump’s
poll
numbers
fell.
The
Trump
campaign’s
top
officials,
Susie
Wiles
and
Chris
LaCivita,
see the
situation
differently
and
share
their
boss’s
eagerness
for him
to
debate
Mr.
Biden as
often as
possible.
They
have
indicated
that
they
don’t
care who
hosts
the
debate,
or where
it’s
held.
The
Trump
campaign
believes,
almost
to a
person,
that Mr.
Biden
has
declined
significantly
since
2020 and
would be
exposed
in a
debate
against
Mr.
Trump.
The
letter
from Ms.
O’Malley
Dillon
could
spell
the end
of a
storied
organization
that has
been
running
presidential
debates
since
the
Reagan
era. She
makes
clear to
the
commission
in her
letter
that the
Biden
campaign
does not
trust
the
organization
to
conduct
a
professional
debate,
saying
it “was
unable
or
unwilling
to
enforce
the
rules in
the 2020
debates.”
Among
other
grievances
with the
commission,
Biden
aides
are
still
furious
that Mr.
Trump
debated
Mr.
Biden in
2020 and
appeared
visibly
under
the
weather,
announcing
soon
after
the
debate
that he
had
tested
positive
for the
coronavirus.
The
Biden
team was
also
livid
that
members
of the
Trump
family
took
their
masks
off when
they
arrived
in the
audience
for the
debate.
Still,
the
Biden
campaign’s
debate
proposal
comes
with
conditions.
And the
decision
to
sideline
the
commission
offers
clear
advantages
to Mr.
Biden.
For
starters,
the
Biden
campaign
proposes
limiting
the
number
of
debates
to only
two,
whereas
the
commission
has
already
scheduled
three
presidential
debates.
Biden
campaign
officials
want the
debates
to be
held in
a
television
studio
without
an
in-person
audience
that
could
cheer,
boo and
derail
the
conversation,
as Trump
supporters
did
during a
CNN town
hall
last
year.
The
commission
always
invites
an
audience
to watch
its
presidential
debates.
There’s
also a
chance
that Mr.
Kennedy
reaches
the 15
percent
national
polling
threshold
to
qualify
for the
commission’s
debates.
The
Biden
campaign
views
Mr.
Kennedy
as a
spoiler
candidate
and
people
close to
the
president
worry
that
with the
Kennedy
name he
could
attract
support
from
voters
who
might
otherwise
support
Mr.
Biden.
Ms.
O’Malley
Dillon
writes
in her
letter
that the
debate
should
be
one-on-one
to allow
voters
“to
compare
the only
two
candidates
with any
statistical
chance
of
prevailing
in the
Electoral
College
— and
not
squandering
debate
time on
candidates
with no
prospect
of
becoming
president.”
The
Biden
campaign
has
proposed
rules —
including
the
automatic
cutting-off
of
microphones
— to
ensure
Mr.
Trump
does not
blow
through
his time
limits
and talk
over Mr.
Biden as
he did
relentlessly
during
their
first
debate
in 2020.
“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,”
Ms.
O’Malley
Dillon
writes
in the
letter.
“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
Biden
campaign
has also
proposed
criteria
to limit
which
television
networks
are
allowed
to host
the
debate.
It
should
only be
hosted,
Ms.
O’Malley
Dillon
writes,
by
broadcast
organizations
that
hosted
both a
Republican
primary
debate
in 2016
in which
Mr.
Trump
participated
and a
Democratic
primary
debate
in 2020
in which
Mr.
Biden
participated
— “so
neither
campaign
can
assert
that the
sponsoring
organization
is
obviously
unacceptable.”
Networks
that
meet
that
mark
include
CBS
News,
ABC
News,
CNN and
Telemundo.
And the
debate
moderators
“should
be
selected
by the
broadcast
host
from
among
their
regular
personnel,
so as to
avoid a
‘ringer’
or
partisan,”
Ms.
O’Malley
Dillon
adds.
The
absence
of an
audience
could be
a
sticking
point
for Mr.
Trump,
who has
often
played
to
crowds
at
debates
and in
town
halls,
encouraged
by their
applause,
catcalls
and
jeers.
Nonetheless,
the
Trump
campaign
has been
complaining
about
the
commission
for
months.
In a
statement
on May 1
condemning
the
organization,
Ms.
Wiles
and Mr.
LaCivita
blasted
the
group
for not
agreeing
to
earlier
debates
given
the fact
that
early
voting
begins
well
before
Election
Day.
“We must
host
debates
earlier
than
ever
before,”
they
said.
“Again,
we call
on every
television
network
in
America
that
wishes
to host
a debate
to
extend
an
invitation
to our
campaign
and we
will
gladly
negotiate
with the
Biden
campaign,
with or
without
the
stubborn
Presidential
Debates
Commission.”
For
decades,
candidates
in both
parties
have
criticized
the
commission.
In 2000,
George
W.
Bush’s
campaign
tried to
engineer
its own
schedule
of
debates,
but
ultimately
consented
to
debates
led by
the
organization.
![](images/obama%20471-051524.jpg)
Barack
Obama,
right,
the
president
at the
time,
and Mitt
Romney,
left,
sit at a
table
facing
the
debate
moderator
in
2012.Credit...Richard
Perry/The
New York
Times
In 2012,
Republicans
complained
bitterly
about
the
debates
between
Mitt
Romney,
their
nominee,
and the
incumbent,
President
Barack
Obama,
when a
moderator
fact-checked
Mr.
Romney
in real
time
during
one
debate.
In 2016,
the
Trump
campaign
fought
with the
commission
over the
seating
of four
women in
the
Trump
family’s
box at a
debate,
three of
whom had
accused
Hillary
Clinton’s
husband,
former
President
Bill
Clinton,
of
sexual
misconduct.
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