President Joe Biden’s campaign is calling on former President Donald Trump to join him for two presidential debates hosted by news organizations and has formally informed the Commission on Presidential Debates that Biden will not participate in its previously scheduled fall debates.
In the letter, the campaign proposed debate dates in June and September.
“Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020. Since then he hasn’t shown up for a debate. Now he’s acting like he wants to debate me again,” Biden said in a direct-to-camera video released Wednesday.
“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 continued, alluding to Trump’s court schedule. In the letter, Biden’s campaign acknowledged that the first debate would likely take place after Trump’s criminal hush-money trial has concluded.
CNN has reached out to the Trump campaign and the committee for comment. In recent public appearances, Trump has seemed eager to debate Biden – he set up an empty lectern at a campaign rally in Wisconsin early last month in a taunt to Biden.
“I’m calling on crooked Joe to debate any time, any place. We’ll do it anywhere you want, Joe,” Trump said at the April 2 rally in Green Bay.
The Commission on Presidential Debates announced dates for three presidential debates last November. The first debate was scheduled for September 16 in Texas, the second on October 1 in Virginia and a third on October 9 in Utah.
In the letter on Wednesday, Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said the campaign is proposing an altered schedule because the original dates are “out of step with changes with changes in the structure of our elections and the interests of voters,” pointing to the timeline of early voting, the way the commission has built debates as an “entertainment spectacle” and the commission being “unable or unwilling” to enforce rules in 2020 debates.
The campaign also proposed that a vice presidential debate take place in late July after the Republican Party nominates its candidate for that position.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.