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Biden says he has accepted invitation for CNN-hosted debate on 27 June
Joe Biden just announced that he is willing to debate Donald Trump on 27 June at a CNN-hosted event:
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
Key events
Joe Biden’s re-election campaign has started selling T-shirts that read “Free on Wednesdays”.
It’s a reference to the day when Donald Trump’s business fraud trial typically takes a break, which the president mentioned in his video announcing his willingness to debate Trump:
Biden says he has accepted invitation for CNN-hosted debate on 27 June
Joe Biden just announced that he is willing to debate Donald Trump on 27 June at a CNN-hosted event:
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
In her letter proposing two debates with Donald Trump, Joe Biden’s campaign co-chair Jen O’Malley Dillon also outlined the conditions under which the parleys would take place.
The debates “should be hosted by any broadcast organization that hosted a Republican Primary debate in 2016 in which Donald Trump participated, and a Democratic primary debate in 2020 in which President Biden participated – so neither campaign can assert that the sponsoring organization is obviously unacceptable: if both candidates have previously debated on their airwaves, then neither could object to such venue,” O’Malley Dillon wrote.
She also objected to the presence of any third-party candidates: “The debates should be one-on-one, allowing 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.”
Whichever broadcast network hosts the debate should select a moderator from “among their regular personnel” to avoid any bias, O’Malley Dillon wrote.
Finally, she wanted controls on when a candidate could speak, and for how long:
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.
In a letter proposing two debates with Donald Trump, Joe Biden’s re-election campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon also said the president would not be participating in events organized by the Commission on Presidential Debates, the traditional host for the candidate face offs.
She named several reasons why the president was snubbing the non-profit organization, including that the commission’s own debate schedule has them beginning “after the American people have a chance to cast their vote early, and doesn’t conclude until after tens of millions of Americans will have already voted.”
She also objected to “the Commission’s model of building huge spectacles with large audiences at great expense,” and criticized its handling of the debates in 2020.
It was the latest blow for the commission, after the Republican National Committee two years ago voted to withdraw from the organization altogether. Here’s more on that:
Biden tells Trump to ‘make my day’ as he proposes June, September debates
In a short video posted on YouTube, Joe Biden channeled Clint Eastwood as he proposed debating Donald Trump twice:
Biden mentioned Wednesday because that is the day Trump’s business fraud trial in New York City usually takes a break. However, the president’s campaign chair proposed scheduling the first debate for late June specifically because it would likely be after that trial’s conclusion.
Trump ‘ready and willing’ to debate after Biden campaign proposes June, September face-offs
Good morning, US politics blog readers. A big question hanging over the presidential campaign is whether Donald Trump and Joe Biden would debate before the 5 November election. This morning, we appear to have reached an answer: the president’s re-election campaign proposed two debates, one in late June, and the other in September. Not long after, Trump posted on Truth Social that he was “Ready and Willing to Debate Crooked Joe at the two proposed times”. In a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates, Biden’s campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon proposed that the first debate take place after the president returns from a summit of G7 leaders, and after the likely conclusion of Trump’s criminal trial in New York City. The second debate would be timed for the period before early voting starts but after campaigning begins in earnest, while a debate of vice-presidential candidates could be held in late July. And while the Commission on Presidential Debates is the traditional host of face-offs between candidates, O’Malley Dillon informed them that Biden would not participate in their proposed events, citing issues with their schedule and moderation.
We’ll let you know what more we hear about this over the course of the day.
Here’s what else is happening:
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The US inflation rate dropped slightly in April, just-released labor department data said, a potentially hopeful sign in the fight against the price increase wave that has bedeviled Biden’s presidency.
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The House of Representatives will consider a host of Republican messaging bills intended to touch on hot-button issues, including legislation to deport migrants who assault police, and to prevent Washington DC’s city government from changing its criminal justice laws.
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Trump’s trial on business fraud charges in New York City takes a break today, and will resume Thursday.
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