Both President Joe Biden and former President Trump have agreed to debate each other on two separate occasions ahead of this year’s presidential election cycle. Hosted by CNN, the two will face off on June 27 in a debate hosted by CNN. Later on September 10, ABC News will host a debate featuring the two candidates. This means Americans are less than one month away from the first Presidential debate, and the stakes couldn’t be higher.
The Biden campaign declared that they would not participate in debates hosted by the nonpartisan Commission for Presidential Debates scheduled to take place in the fall. Instead, they proposed their own terms for a debate and organized them directly with media outlets, which the Trump campaign quickly agreed to. This came to no surprise as the Trump campaign has been pushing for debates since the start of the election cycle. The former President has continuously stated he’s ready to debate Biden “any time, any where, any place” across his social media platforms, in news interviews, and on the campaign trail.
Interestingly, the Biden campaign made some rather odd demands for the debate, not in line with the standard guidelines that the Commission for Presidential Debates provides. The Biden campaign suggested that the debates should not include a large live audience as they normally do because they are often a “distraction” from the candidates and take up time from actual substance. The audiences are usually packed with partisans on both sides, so the reasoning does make sense.
Another new change for the debates this year will fix an all too common problem of candidates interrupting and speaking over each other. In 2016 and 2020, the candidates would continuously disrupt the debate and speak over each other, calling out false or incorrect statements, or simply bickering about the other candidate. That style of debating will cease to exist as the Biden campaign required that the other candidates’ mic be muted while one is answering a question. Both mics will be turned on during the free debate period where candidates will talk over the countries issues in a more conversational style.
The first lady went on “The View” to promote the President prior to next months debates, saying that “You have two choices — my husband Joe, who you all know, who has integrity, he’s strong, he’s steady, he’s a leader, he’s smart, he’s energetic, or you have chaos.” She also added that age isn’t a factor in this election because “Donald Trump is going to be 78 and Joe’s 81.” This is a sentiment that even Trump could agree with, repeating several times in past speeches that age is not the issue, but rather Biden’s “mental decline”.
“I think the American people deserve a debate because you need to see your choices,” the first lady said. “You need to see Trump and you need to see the president and you need to see the differences.”, she went on.
Interestingly, RFK Jr, prominent independent candidate, was left off of the debate tickets, and as of publishing will not be attending this summer’s debates. He hasn’t taken lightly to being excluded from the discourse, and has even taken up legal action with the FEC to remedy the issue.
“CNN is making prohibited corporate contributions to both campaigns and the Biden committee and the Trump committee have accepted these prohibited corporate contributions,” a lawyer for Kennedy, Lorenzo Holloway, wrote in a letter to the Federal Election Commission.
“The law in virtually every state provides that the nominee of a state-recognized political party will be allowed ballot access without petitioning,” a CNN spokesperson responded in a statement on Wednesday. “As the presumptive nominees of their parties both Biden and Trump will satisfy this requirement. As an independent candidate, under applicable laws RFK Jr does not. The mere application for ballot access does not guarantee that he will appear on the ballot in any state.”
The statement also goes on to note that Kennedy has not met the polling criteria.
