In a firm stance, President Joe Biden’s campaign has rejected proposals for additional presidential debates beyond the two already agreed upon with former President Donald Trump’s team. The decision brings an end to the back-and-forth over potential extra debate showdowns in the heated 2024 election cycle. Both campaigns had previously consented to a June 27th debate hosted by CNN in Atlanta and a September 10th event by ABC News at an undecided location.
However, Trump recently announced on Truth Social that he had “accepted a fourth Presidential Debate” with NBC News and Telemundo, aimed at reaching Hispanic voters. An NBC News spokesperson confirmed the network had offered such a debate to both sides. Trump also claimed to have accepted a proposal from Fox News to host a vice presidential debate at Virginia State University, a historically Black college or university (HBCU). This was separate from CBS News’ accepted offer to the Biden campaign for a vice presidential debate that the Trump team has not yet agreed to.
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The Biden team swiftly shut down the prospect of more presidential debates. “The debate about debates is over. No more games,” a campaign official stated bluntly to NBC News. Their stance suggests the two already scheduled events will be the only presidential debates of this election cycle. The former president’s proposals for extra debates appeared calculated to pressure Biden over his struggles connecting with key voting blocs like Hispanics and African Americans that were vital to his 2020 victory. Trump’s Truth Social post mentioned aims to “WIN with our Great Hispanic Community, who Biden has devastated with Crippling Inflation, High Gas Prices, Crime in our Streets, and Border Chaos.”
His campaign followed up by accusing Biden of being too “cobarde” (cowardly) to face the Hispanic community on the debate stage. However, the Biden official suggested they had left the door open for the two agreed-upon debates to partner with Spanish-language networks. The Presidential Debate complications come amid the Biden and Trump campaigns sidelining the traditional non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates in favor of negotiations directly between their teams. CNN has already announced no live audience for its June debate.
For each event, candidates must meet criteria like appearing on enough state ballots for a potential Electoral College victory and polling at 15% or higher across major national surveys. While Trump jumped at Biden’s challenge for debates hosted by networks, the president’s team warns “no more chaos” or “debate about debates” – signaling the finality of their two-debate stance. In the high-stakes presidential race, the limited number of debate clashes takes on even greater importance for voters to directly evaluate the contrasting visions of the two major party candidates. As Trump pushed for more verbal battlefield, Biden has drawn a line – declaring in essence, “no more games” on the debate front as campaigning intensifies.
