As pressure mounts ahead of the US presidential election, President Joe Biden has challenged former President Donald Trump in two debates.
Biden’s campaign team proposed that the first debate between the presumptive Democratic and Republican nominees be held in late June and the second in September before early voting begins, AP News reports.
However, Biden on Wednesday rejected participating in fall presidential debates sponsored by the nonpartisan commission that has organized them for more than three decades.
Trump reportedly responded to the letter in an interview with Fox News Digital, saying the proposed dates are “fully acceptable to me”.
Meanwhile, Trump joked about providing his own transportation.
Biden had in a post on X platform said, “Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020, 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.”
He suggested that the two candidates could pick some dates, taking a dig at Trump’s ongoing New York hush money trial by noting that the Republican is “free on Wednesdays,” the usual day off in the trial.
Biden in a post on X platform on Wednesday said that he had received and accepted an invitation from CNN for a debate with Trump on June 27.
“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,” the President wrote.
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Biden campaign chairman, Jen O’Malley Dillon, on Wednesday reportedly sent a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates notifying the Commission that President Biden would not participate in its announced debates.
Dillon told the commission that Biden has chosen to rather participate in debates hosted by news organizations.
The campaign objected to the fall dates selected by the commission which come after some Americans begin to vote, repeating a complaint also raised by the Trump campaign.
The Biden campaign has long held a grudge against the nonpartisan commission for failing to evenly apply its rules during the 2020 Biden-Trump matchups, most notably when it didn’t enforce its COVID-19 testing rules on Trump and his entourage and Biden’s team has held talks with television networks and some Republicans about ways to circumvent the commission’s grip on presidential debates.
The president first indicated he would be willing to debate Trump during an interview with the radio host Howard Stern last month, telling him, “I am, somewhere. I don’t know when. But I’m happy to debate with him.”
AP reports that Biden indicated again last week that he was preparing to debate, telling reporters as he was leaving a White House event: “Set it up.”
Trump has repeatedly dared Biden to debate him, keeping a second podium open at rallies and claiming that his rival would not be up for the task.
Also, Trump has taken issue with the debate commission, but he and his team have maintained that they don’t care who hosts the debates as long as they happen.
The former President’s campaign team reportedly issued a statement on May 1 objecting the scheduled debates by the Commission on Presidential Debates.
The campaign said that the schedule “begins AFTER early voting” and that “this is unacceptable” because voters deserve to hear from the candidates before ballots are cast.
Trump said at a Pennsylvania rally before his hush money trial began that the debates were needed.
He said, “We have to debate because our country is going in the wrong direction so badly,” Trump said with the empty podium next to him. “We have to explain to the American people what the hell is going on.”
