US President Joe Biden said Wednesday, May 15, he is willing to debate former US President Donald Trump in a pair of face-to-face showdowns ahead of the election – but only if his rival agrees to his strict terms
“Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020, and now he wants to debate me again,” Biden said in the fiery early-morning video posted on his personal X account.
“Well, make my day pal,” added the 81-year-old president.
In a letter obtained by The Post, the Biden camp ruled out allowing the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates to organize the events, which it has done since the 1988 election cycle.
Instead of three presidential debates scheduled by the CPD for Sept. 16, Oct. 1, and Oct. 9, Biden wants to face off with Trump on a more compressed schedule with the first debate held as early as June, campaign chair Jennifer O’Malley Dillon wrote.
“I hear you’re free on Wednesdays,” Biden chided in the video, referring to Trump’s ongoing criminal trial in New York, which is on recess Wednesdays.
The second debate was proposed for early September, “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,” O’Malley Dillon explained in the letter, which was first reported by the New York Times.
The Biden team also asked for the debates to be staged inside a television studio with microphones that automatically cut out when the speaker’s time elapses and no live audience.
The proposed debates would also exclude Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and any other third-party candidates. The CPD would allow additional candidates to take the stage if they reached a minimum of 15% in polling and were on enough state ballots.
Trump responded to Biden’s challenge in a Truth Social post, saying he was “ready and willing” to debate him.
“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. 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,” he wrote.
The Trump campaign had long asked Biden to commit to debates earlier in the 2024 cycle.
Watch the video below
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. pic.twitter.com/AkPmvs2q4u
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 15, 2024
