President Joe Biden and his biggest political rival, presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, agreed this week to participate in two debates that will be televised leading up to November’s elections.
Not long after that happened, Trump took to his Truth Social platform to rail against Biden. In an all-caps post, Trump wrote:
“Crooked Joe Biden is the weakest, most incompetent, and most dishonest president in the history of the United States but, most importantly, he is the worst president our country has ever seen or known. Hopefully, there will never be another one like him. He is a threat to Democracy.”
The presidential debates the candidates agreed to will take place on June 27 in Atlanta and will air on CNN and then on September 10 on ABC. The debates will be televised live, and should attract millions of viewers in all parts of the country.
Before Biden agreed to debate him, Trump was trying to goad Biden into agreeing to do so. He said that Biden was “the worst debater” he’s ever faced.
The president tried firing back, saying Trump “lost two debates to me in 2020” and has not “shown up for a debate” since that time. Trump decided to skip all the GOP primary debates that were hosted by the RNC, choosing instead to host individual events on his own — most of which aired at the same time the RNC debate was going on.
In a video that Biden posted to his social media channels, he said of Trump:
“Now he’s acting like he wants to debate me again. Well, make my day, pal.”
The Trump campaign has pushed for many more presidential debates. The former president has said that he’s accepted an offer from Fox News to attend a debate the network plans to hold in early October.
But, the Biden campaign has rejected those calls for more debates to be held, accusing Trump of “playing games.”
In a statement, Jen O’Malley Dillon, the chair of the Biden campaign, said:
“No more games. No more chaos, no more debates about debates. We’ll see DOnald Trump on June 27th in Atlanta — if he shows up.”
The first presidential debate between the two will be held in the Atlanta studios of CNN. The moderators will be Dana Bash and Jake Tapper, two of the network’s anchors.
It won’t be in front of a live audience, according to officials, to “maximize the time allotted” to each candidate.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is running for president as an independent candidate, also said that he’s met all the criteria to participate in that June debate. CNN required that each presidential candidate qualified for enough state ballots to reach the threshold of 270 electoral votes, as well as receive at least 15% support in four different national polls of either likely or registered voters.
As RFK Jr. posted on the social media platform X:
“I look forward to holding Presidents Biden and Trump accountable for their records in Atlanta on June 27 to give Americans the debate they deserve.”
