Former President Donald Trump once again threw down the gauntlet against President Biden, challenging him to a debate, fresh off their near-sweep of Super Tuesday states.
Trump is now the de facto presumptive Republican nominee after his last-standing rival Nikki Haley bowed out of the race early Wednesday. He skipped all of the 2024 Republican debates.
“It is important, for the Good of our Country, that Joe Biden and I Debate Issues that are so vital to America, and the American People,” Trump wrote on Truth Social hours after Haley’s exit.
“Therefore, I am calling for Debates, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE, ANYPLACE! The Debates can be run by the Corrupt DNC, or their Subsidiary, the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD).”
The 77-year-old former president has repeatedly taunted Biden into squaring off with him in a verbal bout, needling that he doesn’t think his successor has the mental aptitude to face him.
Biden’s team quickly shrugged off the taunt.
“I know Donald Trump’s thirsty for attention and struggling to expand his appeal beyond the MAGA base — and that’s a conversation we’ll have at the appropriate time in this cycle,” said Michael Tyler, communications director for the Biden campaign.
“But if he’s so desperate to see President Biden in prime time, he doesn’t have to wait! He can join the tens of millions of Americans who will tune in to watch the State of the Union tomorrow night.”
Trump, for his part, is planning to mount an all-out troll operation against Biden during his third State of the Union address.
Typically, most presidential debates take place closer to the fall. Since the late 1980s, the Commission on Presidential Debates has orchestrated those verbal rumbles.
But during the 2020 election cycle, Trump and the Republican National Committee fumed at the CPD, accusing it of selecting biased moderators and complaining about some of its rules.
The RNC demanded reforms at the organization and threatened to bar candidates from partaking in CPD-sponsored debates. But that all took place under RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel’s watch.
In 2022, the RNC unanimously moved to withdraw from the CPD, due to objections with the group orchestrating the debates.
McDaniel is expected to soon be replaced with Trump-backed Michael Whatley, the North Carolina GOP chair, and given Trump’s strong influence over the RNC, that past dust-up with the CPD may not prove to be a major impediment.
The CPD has already set three dates for its feted general election debates. Early polling suggests that environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy might meet the criteria to make the stage.
