The 2024 presidential campaign took an interesting turn on Wednesday when Joe Biden, after months of ignoring Donald Trump's calls to debate, did his best Clint Eastwood impression and challenged Trump to two debates, one in June and the other in September.
“Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020, and since then, he hasn’t shown up for a debate," Biden claimed in a video message, conveniently forgetting that he has also refused to debate his primary challengers. But since when has Biden cared about facts? "Now he is acting like he wants to debate me again. 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.”
Biden's video message, a mere 13 seconds long, had five jump cuts, indicating that it took multiple takes for him to deliver the short message correctly.
Trump quickly accepted both debates, of which CNN and ABC News will each host one. He has long wanted more than the three traditional debates, and on Wednesday, he continued to push for more.
Related: Biden Campaign Officially Turns Down Presidential Debates Commission
"Today is a good day for America’s voters, now that Joe Biden has FINALLY accepted President Trump’s debate challenge," Trump campaign managers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said in a campaign memo that PJ Media received. "President Trump and our campaign have been requesting this for months with a consistent message: ANY TIME! ANYWHERE! ANY PLACE!"
President Trump has already accepted the CNN debate invitation for June 27.
He has also accepted your proposal for a debate in September. But we believe there should be more than just two opportunities for the American people to hear more from the candidates themselves. With the soaring inflation of Bidenomics costing America’s hardworking families at the grocery store and at the gas pump, with our border being totally overrun, with chaos at home, chaos across the world, chaos on our college campuses, we should have one debate per month.
Therefore, we propose a debate in June, a debate in July, a debate in August, and a debate in September, in addition to the Vice Presidential debate. Additional dates will allow voters to have maximum exposure to the records and future visions of each candidate.
We believe the American people deserve more than what the Biden administration has to offer.
But the Biden campaign isn't biting.
“Donald Trump has a long history of playing games with debates: complaining about the rules, breaking those rules, pulling out at the last minute, or not showing up at all — which he’s done repeatedly in all three cycles he’s run for president,” Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement.
“He said he would debate President Biden anytime, anywhere, anyplace,” Dillon continued. “In fact, he’s said and posted it dozens of times with varying degrees of comprehension and basic grammar. President Biden made his terms clear for two one-on-one debates, and Donald Trump accepted those terms.”
It was never likely that the Biden campaign was going to agree to more than two debates. Whether debates happen or not is still up in the air. Despite finally agreeing to debate, does anyone believe that Biden will show up?
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