President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have agreed to a pair of debates ahead of the November election, and both camps are bragging they came out on top in the contest.
Trump was pushing for debates against Biden, early and often, for most of the year, even before he had locked up the GOP nomination. Biden’s campaign had said there would be debates but did not delve into detailed demands until Wednesday. By noon on Wednesday, Biden and Trump had agreed to debates on CNN in June and ABC in September, in line with the requirements Biden had set in a video released earlier in the day.
Trump had strong fighting words for Biden after accepting his terms, saying the president was the “WORST debater” he had ever faced and to “just tell me when, I’ll be there. ‘Let’s get ready to Rumble!!!'”
The Trump campaign and its supporters had speculated that Biden would not agree to a debate, but one Trump official told Politico that the president agreeing to debate the former president was seen as a victory.
“I think they walked right into a buzzsaw,” the official said. “There was never an understanding that there were even going to be debates. … We got what we wanted: We got debates! Everything else is background noise.”
While the Trump camp has claimed a victory, so has the Biden campaign.
The Biden campaign laid out the ground rules for debates and had all of them granted. Not only did Biden’s team sap Trump of an audience he is so fond of catering to — he refused to agree to a virtual debate in 2020 that would have precluded a live audience — but it also won relatively friendly venues in CNN and ABC. There has been back-and-forth on how many debates the two will have, but it appears as though Biden could claim another victory if they are constrained to just two contests.
“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,” Jen O’Malley Dillon, Biden campaign chairwoman, said in a statement, declining Trump’s call for another debate.
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While both men are claiming an early victory in the debates before they have even started, both have risks in agreeing to join the other on a stage to discuss pressing matters. Trump’s performance in the first debate in 2020 and concerns over Biden’s memory problems detailed in special counsel Robert Hur’s report are seen as some of the possible warning signs for both sides.
The first presidential debate is scheduled for June 27 and will be aired on CNN, and the second debate is scheduled for Sept. 10 and will be aired on ABC.
