It’s unclear which involved party would like to see President Joe Biden on a debate stage more, former President Donald Trump or the TV news networks hoping for several nights of big ratings.
For the past few months, Biden has been coy on the question of debating Trump. The President sits at a cognitive disadvantage given that he’s unable to get through a press conference without a cheat sheet telling him who to call on and what talking points he’s supposed to deliver. Even then, he sometimes goes off the rails.
The fear among TV news executives is that they will miss out on the free money and ratings that typically accompany a presidential election year. More people than average will tune in and watch election coverage, especially the debates, and they want those eyeballs.
It’s in this context that five TV news networks have sent an open letter to both candidates urging them to participate in the scheduled presidential debates, the New York Times reports:
In an unusual move, the five major broadcast and cable news networks have prepared a joint open letter that urges President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump to participate in televised debates ahead of Election Day, according to two people with direct knowledge of their plans.
The letter — endorsed by ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and Fox News — thrusts into public view a question that has swirled within media and political circles: whether the presidential debates, one of the nation’s last remaining mass civic rituals in a polarized age, will occur this year at all.
“We, the undersigned national news organizations, urge the presumptive presidential nominees to publicly commit to participating in general election debates before November’s election,” the letter reads, according to a draft version obtained by The New York Times.
The letter is not yet final, and the networks are also seeking endorsements from other leading national news organizations, including newspapers.
Let’s be clear, this letter is directly aimed at Biden, not Trump.
For his part, Trump has repeatedly and often urged Biden to start debating now and add more to the schedule, per the New York Post:
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.
Trump has a valid point. The debates should occur before any voting takes place in any state. It’s absurd to schedule debates after millions of people have already cast a ballot. What’s the point of examining the candidates on the largest stage under the hottest lights if the votes already cast can never be changed?
There’s an obvious reason why Biden has deferred on the question. He’s not the Joe Biden he was even just a few short years ago when he debated in 2020. He’s still able to string together some articulate thoughts for a short period, but not over a longer time frame like a 90-minute debate, and certainly not without a teleprompter.
Trump would revel in the opportunity to let Biden hang himself telling debunked stories about his law school professor days or demonstrate his symmetry with the everyday working man by letting everyone know he frequently rode the train over the now-destroyed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. For those paying attention, there have never been rail lines on that bridge since it was opened in 1977.
Alas, the White House continues deflecting the question:
DOOCY: "It's possible that there will be no Joe Biden-Donald Trump debates?"
KJP: "Is that what you're excited about? Is that what you wanna see?" pic.twitter.com/Yoq4EgcbLv
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) March 6, 2024
Comparing a State of the Union address, a choreographed and scripted event, to a 90-minute unscripted debate doesn’t quite match up.
It seems unlikely Biden can entirely dodge the debates but it’s possible if his handlers feel it necessary.
In the end, they’ll somehow blame a lack of debates on Trump anyway.
