Biden-Trump Debates: What To Know As CNN Reveals Moderators For Next Month’s Faceoff

 

Then-US President Donald Trump and then-Democratic Presidential candidate, former US Vice President Joe Biden, participate in the final presidential debate of the 2020 election cycle at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, on October 22, 2020

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump accepted invitations Wednesday from CNN and ABC to participate in June and September debates—marking a pivotal moment in the 2024 election cycle ahead of their historic rematch in November.

KEY FACTS

CNN will host the first debate on June 27 and ABC will host the second on Sept. 10, the networks announced hours after Biden formally challenged Trump to debate in a video announcement, and Trump promptly accepted.

The CNN debate will be held at the network’s Atlanta studios with no audience, the network said, and there’s a good chance Trump and Biden will be the only participants as none of the other candidates, including independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr., are likely to meet the rules for qualifying by June 27.

CNN anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash will host the first debate, while ABC News’ David Muir and Linsey Davis will moderate the second.

Trump’s campaign also proposed hosting two additional debates in July and August to “allow voters to have maximum exposure to the records and future visions of each candidate.”

Trump said later Wednesday on Truth Social he also accepted an invitation for an Oct. 2 debate on Fox News hosted by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, though the network had not confirmed the offer.

Biden’s campaign appeared to rebuff Trump’s proposal for a showdown on Fox: Campaign spokesperson Jen O’Malley Dillon accused Trump of “continuing to play games with presidential debates” since Fox didn’t host a 2020 Democratic primary debate, which was one of Biden’s terms.

KEY BACKGROUND

The quick turn of events comes after Trump prodded Biden for months to agree to a debate, and Biden said for the first time in a Howard Stern interview last month he would be willing to participate. In announcing its proposed debate schedule, Biden’s campaign said he would not participate in debates hosted by the Commission on Presidential Debates (which has organized debates for presidential candidates since the 1980s) and would instead take part in debates hosted by TV networks. Biden’s campaign said it was shunning the commission due to its failure to enforce rules in the 2020 debates, its tradition of hosting debates in front of large audiences and its proposal to begin debates in September, after early voting begins

TANGENT

Trump and Biden have exchanged fighting words over the debates. Biden initially said his decision to debate Trump would depend on his “behavior,” while Trump has said since at least February he was prepared to debate Biden “now.” After Biden told Stern he would “happy” to debate Trump, the former president said he was ready “anywhere, any time, any place.” Biden hit back at Trump in Wednesday’s announcement, telling his competitor “make my day, pal, I’ll even do it twice,” adding, “I hear he’s free on Wednesdays,” a reference to Trump’s Manhattan hush money trial schedule, which has a weekly break on Wednesdays.

WHAT ARE THE DEBATE RULES?

The Biden campaign said the debate hosts should be news organizations that hosted a 2016 GOP primary debate Trump participated in and a 2020 Democratic primary debate Biden participated in “so neither campaign can assert that the sponsoring organization is obviously unacceptable.” It is also seeking “firm time limits for answers and alternate turns to speak,” along with muted microphones when it is not a candidate’s turn to speak. It’s unclear if Trump will agree to the muted mic rule—he and his campaign complained about the protocol in the second 2020 presidential debate after he repeatedly interrupted Biden during the first debate.

WILL OTHER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES PARTICIPATE?

Probably not. The debate rules laid out by CNN and ABC require candidates to receive at least 15% support in four separate national polls of registered voters and appear on enough state ballots to secure the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. The four other prominent candidates running—independents Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West, Green Party candidate Jill Stein and Libertarian Lars Mapstead—consistently poll below 15%. Kennedy comes closest to reaching the polling threshold (netting 8% support in a three-way race with Trump and Biden in an April Reuters poll), but he has only secured ballot access in six states, accounting for a combined 125 electoral votes.