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To debate or not to debate is a complicated question for President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump as they barrel into an eight-month general election.
Trump’s position: On social media, Trump promised he would debate Biden “ANYTIME, ANYWHERE, ANYPLACE.” It is a bold claim that is not backed up by Trump’s record.
He failed to participate in any of the Republican National Committee-sponsored primary debates in this election cycle. He’s also the only modern, major-party nominee to back out of a general election debate, during the pandemic four years ago.
The RNC voted in 2022 to end its relationship with the nonpartisan system that has sponsored general election debates since the 1988 presidential campaign. Trump has since cleaned house at the RNC. More on that later.
Biden’s position: Biden only faced token primary opposition this year, and the Democratic National Committee didn’t sponsor any primary debates. But he has remained coy about whether he will debate Trump in the general election, saying it “depends on his behavior.”
Whether either man will show up to the debate stage is an open question, but there is a detailed plan for three presidential debates and a vice presidential one already in place from the Commission on Presidential Debates. It’s a nonpartisan organization that has leaders from both sides of the political aisle and gets funding from the communities that host debates and also “to a lesser extent, from corporate, foundation and private donors,” per its website.
For more on the context and history of presidential debates, I talked on the phone with two experts:
- Alan Schroeder wrote the…
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