Trump, Biden agree to June 27, Sept. 10 debates in campaign schedule shakeup
President Biden and former President Donald Trump tentatively agreed Wednesday to face off in two summer debates months before the Nov. 5 election, upending the traditional campaign calendar.
CNN announced that the rivals will meet at 9 p.m. ET Thursday, June 27, at its Atlanta headquarters for a debate moderated by “State of the Union” co-hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.
There will be no live audience, in accordance with the Biden campaign’s request.
Later Wednesday, Biden and Trump said they had each accepted an offer from ABC News to hold a second debate on Tuesday, Sept. 10.
The agreement between the two camps cuts out the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), which has organized the head-to-head events since the 1988 election cycle.
Major-party presidential nominees have squared off in debates every four years since 1976, but have never met earlier than September, after the national political conventions and when most Americans are home from their summer vacations.
Biden, 81, fired the first shot at 8 a.m. sharp, posting on his personal X account: “Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020, and now he wants to debate me again.”
“Well, make my day pal,” added the president.
Biden then added in a separate X post that he had “received and accepted” the CNN debate invite, teasing: “Over to you, Donald. As you said: anywhere, any time, any place.”
Trump responded that he would accept Biden’s challenge, telling Fox News “I’ll be there” and adding that he was “looking forward to being in beautiful Atlanta.”
“Crooked Joe Biden is the WORST debater I have ever faced – He can’t put two sentences together! Crooked is also the WORST President in the history of the United States, by far,” the former president expounded in Truth Social.
“It’s time for a debate so that he can explain to the American People his highly destructive Open Border Policy, new and ridiculous EV Mandates, the allowance of Crushing Inflation, High Taxes, and his really WEAK Foreign Policy, which is allowing the World to ‘Catch on Fire.’ I am Ready and Willing to Debate Crooked Joe at the two proposed times in June and September. I would strongly recommend more than two debates and, for excitement purposes, a very large venue, although Biden is supposedly afraid of crowds – That’s only because he doesn’t get them. Just tell me when, I’ll be there.”
Trump closed by quoting legendary boxing announcer Michael Buffer: “Let’s get ready to Rumble!!!”
The quick agreement from both sides Wednesday morning came despite a lack of prior planning, a source familiar with the situation told The Post.
“Contact was made after Biden announced his willingness to debate on radio between the two camps. But then there was silence until Biden accepted President Trump’s challenge this morning,” the person said, referring to the president’s April 26 comment to radio host Howard Stern that “I don’t know when, but I am happy to debate” Trump.
The source added there was one other attempt at contact between the two campaigns in recent weeks, but “no negotiations took place.”
The CPD tentatively scheduled three debates: Sept. 16 in San Marcos, Texas; Oct. 1 in Petersburg, Va.; and Oct. 9 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
However, Biden wanted to face off with Trump on a more compressed schedule, campaign chair Jennifer O’Malley Dillon wrote in a letter to the commission obtained by The Post, “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.”
Trump’s team countered by requesting four debates to “allow voters to have maximum exposure.”
“We propose a debate in June, a debate in July, a debate in August, and a debate in September, in addition to the Vice Presidential debate,” campaign consiglieres Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles wrote to Biden’s team.
Trump also fired off another Truth Social post after agreeing to the first two debates, saying he would take part in a third debate hosted by Fox News on Oct. 2 and moderated by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum.
The Biden team appeared to reject that idea, with O’Malley Dillon saying in a statement that “President Biden made his terms clear for two one-on-one debates, and Donald Trump accepted those terms. No more games. No more chaos, no more debate about debates. We’ll see Donald Trump on June 27th in Atlanta – if he shows up.”
In addition to the no-live-audience request — purportedly to avoid “raucous or disruptive partisans and donors” — the Biden team asked for each candidate to be equipped with microphones that automatically cut off when their time to speak runs out.
“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. A candidate’s microphone should only be active when it is his turn to speak, to promote adherence to the rules and orderly proceedings,” read the Democratic letter, first reported by the New York Times.
The debates will also exclude independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other third-party candidates. The commission would have allowed additional candidates to take the stage if they reached a minimum of 15% in polling and were on enough state ballots.
The Trump campaign had long asked Biden to commit to debates earlier in the 2024 cycle.
The 45th president’s team had initially said in early April the former president would be willing to debate Biden “anytime, anyplace and anywhere,” and had urged the commission to move its debates up to account for early voting.
But the CPD argued its plans had accounted for “religious and federal holidays, early voting, and the dates on which individual states close their ballots.”
After Biden signaled willingness to debate in the interview with Stern, Trump’s advisers challenged the incumbent to debate sooner — without CPD involvement.
“We extend an invitation to every television network in America that wishes to host a debate, and we once again call on Joe Biden’s team to work with us to set one up as soon as possible. The American people deserve it,” LaCivita and Wiles wrote in a statement at the time.
The Biden campaign piled on the CPD Wednesday, with O’Malley Dillon writing: “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.”
As of Tuesday night, the commission had not heard from either campaign about coordinating on the debates, co-founder Frank Fahrenkopf said on a reporter call with centrist group No Labels.
In a statement Wednesday, the CPD said: “The American public deserves substantive debates from the leading candidates for president and vice president. The nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) was established in 1987 specifically to ensure that such debates reliably take place and reach the widest television, radio and streaming audience.
“Our 2024 sites, all locations of higher learning, are prepared to host debates on dates chosen to accommodate early voters. We will continue to be ready to execute this plan.”
