Photo: Alamy
As national attention has turned away from the GOP presidential primary race and toward the general election, the question everyone is asking is whether Joe Biden will take the debate stage to spar with President Donald Trump.
Trump wrote on Truth Social this week, “For the good of our now failing Nation, and in order to inform the American people of what is going on in our Country, we must immediately have a full scale debate between Crooked Joe and Honest Don. I’m ready to go, ANY TIME, ANY PLACE!”
This is not the first time that the 45th president has thrown down the gauntlet. After clinching the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nomination, Trump immediately challenged Biden to a debate, recognizing that the primary election season is wrapped up tight.
Trump explained last week that he was open to allowing the debates to be hosted by the “Corrupt DNC, or their Subsidiary, the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD).”
He added, “I look forward to receiving a response. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
After Joe Biden’s angry and often-confused State of the Union address last week, many Americans are likely wondering if he even can stand on a debate stage and face Trump.
For his part, Biden has refused to commit to whether he would be willing to debate President Trump ahead of the general election matchup in November. He told the press that it “depends on his [Trump’s] behavior,” according to Reuters. This answer, of course, is ambiguous at best and leaves the conversation wide open to speculation.
If Biden and Trump don’t debate, it would be a deviation from historic American tradition. The first televised presidential debate in the United States featured then-candidate John F. Kennedy facing off against Vice President Richard Nixon in 1960. Since then, presidential debates have been a useful tool for candidates hoping to reach voting Americans with their policies and political messages.
According to the Pew Research Center, three-fifths of American voters find the debates “very” or “somewhat helpful” in determining which candidate they will vote for.