Trump team demands early debates against Biden ‘anytime, anyplace and anywhere’: letter
Donald Trump is prepared to debate President Biden “anytime, anyplace, and anywhere” and is ready to face off “now,” according to an open letter from the 45th president’s campaign published Thursday.
Trump advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita fired off the missive to the Commission on Presidential Debates outlining the presumptive GOP nominee’s wishes to go head-to-head with Biden “much earlier” than scheduled so voters can get a sense of the candidates before early voting begins.
Currently, three presidential debates are set for Sept. 16 in San Marcos, Texas; Oct. 1 in Petersburg, Va.; and Oct. 9 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Trump’s team argued those dates are too late in the cycle given the prevalence of early and mail-in voting.
“Voting is beginning earlier and earlier, and as we saw in 2020, tens of millions of Americans had already voted by the time of the first debate. Specific to the Commission’s proposed 2024 calendar, it simply comes too late,” read the letter, which has been reviewed by The Post and was first reported by Fox News.
“In 2020, the Commission ceded to the wishes of the Biden campaign on every front, refusing to move up the dates of the debates, failing to reschedule the debate canceled by COVID-19, cutting off President Trump’s microphone over and over in the middle of a debate, and in the case of the first debate, selecting a demonstrably anti-Trump moderator clearly positioned to aid Joe Biden,” Wiles and LaCivita wrote. “Fairness in such a setting is paramount and the Commission must ensure that the 2024 Commission-sponsored debates are truly fair and conducted impartially.
“The Commission must move up the timetable of its proposed 2024 debates to ensure more
Americans have a full chance to see the candidates before they start voting, and we would argue
for adding more debates in addition to those on the currently proposed schedule,” they added.
“We have already indicated President Trump is willing to debate anytime, anyplace, and anywhere – and
the time to start these debates is now.”
The Trump campaign letter followed a New York Times report this week that five major broadcasters are preparing their own missive demanding Biden and Trump commit to debate participation.
Biden, 81, has repeatedly scoffed at the idea of debating Trump, positing that the former president is just bored.
“Well, if I were him, I’d want to debate me too,” the president told reporters in February. “He’s got nothing else to do.”
Then, on March 8, Biden suggested to reporters as he left Washington that the prospect of a debate “depends on his [Trump’s] behavior.”
Both Biden and Trump avoided primary debates against their respective challengers, but Trump, 77, has been vocal about wanting to spar with Biden on stage as soon as possible.
“I’d like to debate him now because we should debate,” Trump said in February on the “Dan Bongino Show.” “We should debate for the good of the country.”
Earlier this month, the former president propped an empty mic stand next to his podium at a Wisconsin rally, symbolizing Biden’s refusal to go head-to-head.
“You can see we have an empty podium right here to my right. You know what that is? That’s for Joe Biden,” Trump told supporters in Green Bay April 2.
“I’m trying to get him to debate,” he added. “I’m calling on ‘Crooked Joe’ to debate anytime, anyplace. We’ll do it anyway you want, Joe.”
After the release of the letter on Thursday, the former president argued it would be important to debate Biden “because the country is doing so badly.”
“Perhaps he will, perhaps he won’t. I really don’t care,” he told Fox News. “I am totally committed to debating him anytime, anywhere, any place.”
The Commission on Presidential Debates has sponsored and produced presidential and vice presidential debates in every general election cycle since 1988.
