In a letter filed to the Commission on Presidential Debates on Thursday, the campaign of former president Donald Trump requested that the general election debates for this year be held “much earlier” and that additional debates be added to the calendar.
According to a letter sent to commission members by Trump campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, “We are in favor of these debates beginning much earlier,” even though the commission had previously announced three presidential and one vice presidential debate to take place later this year.
“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,” Wiles and LaCivita said, citing the earlier voting beginning in recent elections.
The administration has already stated that President Trump is open to debates at any time and location; the moment to begin these discussions is now, they added.
The Republican National Committee hosted several primary debates this election season, but Trump chose not to take part in any of them. Additionally, he is unique among modern major-party nominees in that he withdrew from a general election debate four years ago because to the pandemic.
Fifty days before the election on November 5, the first presidential debate of the year is scheduled for September 16 in San Marcos, Texas.
Even still, the timetable would be earlier than what we’ve seen recently. The 2020 presidential campaign’s first debate featured Trump and Joe Biden and was held on September 29, 35 days before the election. On September 26, 43 days prior to Election Day in 2016, Trump and Clinton had their first debate.
Following a joint letter from five major US television networks—including AWN—urging Biden and the former president to participate in televised debates in the run-up to the 2024 election, Trump has sent a similar letter.
The networks—which comprise Fox News, ABC, CBS, and NBC—were reportedly in the minority when they encouraged the candidates for president “to publicly commit to participating in general election debates before November’s election.”
In reaction to the letter from the Trump campaign, Republican National Committee leaders also spoke out during Thursday’s debates.
In a joint statement, RNC Chairman Michael Whatley and co-chair Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law, expressed their belief that the length of the election calendar is unprecedented and that holding debates after millions of Americans have cast their ballots is unfair to those voters who are seeking answers to the economic, border, and crime crises that Joe Biden caused.
The Republican National Committee agreed overwhelmingly to end its involvement with the Commission on Presidential Debates in 2022 after then-Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel criticized the group as “biased.” In 1987, the Republican and Democratic parties established the commission as a nonprofit organization. Since 1988, the commission has staged debates for every presidential election.
After Trump’s campaign streamlined the RNC and installed Whatley and Lara Trump in prominent positions, he left his mark on the institution.
The Biden campaign cited the president’s February statements where he said, “If I were him, I’d want to debate me too,” in response to Thursday’s letter. That was in reference to Trump. He is currently unemployed.
Biden has not officially stated his intention to debate his opponent, but he has also not disclaimed the possibility.
“His actions will determine the outcome,” the president stated last month.
