A debate offer by President Joe Biden posted in a video on X on May 15, was accepted within the hour by a reply post on Truth Social by former President Donald Trump.
President Biden said in a 15-second video that he won two debates against President Trump in 2020, stating “since then he hasn’t shown up” for another debate.
“Now he’s acting like he wants to debate me again,” President Biden said in the video. “Well, make my day, pal. I’ll even do it twice, so let’s pick the dates Donald—I hear you’re free on Wednesdays.”
President Trump responded, noting that in his opinion that President Biden is the “worst” debater he had ever faced and that the current president “can’t put two sentences together.”
“It’s time for a debate so that he can explain to the American People his highly destructive Open Border Policy, new and ridiculous EV Mandates, the allowance of Crushing Inflation, High Taxes, and his really WEAK Foreign Policy, which is allowing the World to ‘Catch on Fire.’ I am Ready and Willing to Debate Crooked Joe at the two proposed times in June and September,” President Trump said in his post on Truth Social.
President Trump was referring to dates proposed by the Biden campaign in a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates on Wednesday, which noted the president would not be making an appearance at their pre-scheduled debates, instead calling for the campaigns to organize the debates themselves.
The commission had already scheduled one vice-presidential and three presidential debates, starting on Sept. 16, while the Biden campaign said in the letter they wanted to have the debates prior to early voting, with one in June and another in September.
The two candidates announced later in the morning that they accepted an offer from CNN to debate one another in Atlanta on June 27 and another offer from ABC News on Sept. 10. The CNN debate will be held in their studios, according to the network, and will not include an audience, while additional details of the ABC News debate were not immediately available.
By Chase Smith