Former President Donald Trump is responding to a debate proposal offered by President Joe Biden’s campaign.
In a letter obtained by The New York Times, the Biden campaign proposed holding two debates, one as early as late-June and the other in early-September.
Speaking to Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman, Trump said, “I’m ready to go… The dates that they proposed are fine… Let’s see if Joe can make it to the stand-up podium.”
“The proposed June and early September dates are fully acceptable to me. I will provide my own transportation,” he added.
EXCLUSIVE: @realDonaldTrump tells me:
— Brooke Singman (@BrookeSingman) May 15, 2024
“I'm ready to go…The dates that they proposed are fine…Let's see if Joe can make it to the stand-up podium.”
"The proposed June and early September dates are fully acceptable to me. I will provide my own transportation."
Trump also took a shot at his debate opponent, telling Singman, “Crooked Joe Biden is the worst debater I have ever faced—he can’t put two sentences together and is the worst president in the history of the United States, by far.”
Trump also told me:
— Brooke Singman (@BrookeSingman) May 15, 2024
“It is time for a debate to take place-even if it has to be held through the offices of the Commission on Presidential Debates, which are totally controlled by Democrats and who,as people remember,got caught cheating with me with debate sound levels”
Trump has repeatedly challenged Biden to agree to a debate, saying he is “ready to go anywhere that you are.”
In a video posted on X Wednesday morning, Biden said, “Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020. Since then he hasn’t shown up for a debate.”
His comment refers to Trump’s decision to skip every debate in the 2024 Republican presidential primary.
“Now, he’s 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,” he added.
On Wednesday, The New York Times reported the Biden campaign offered a proposal for presidential debates this year.
The campaign said the president is willing to debate Trump twice ahead of the election. However, it also expressed a desire that the debates be scheduled well ahead of when voting begins — even as early as June. It proposed hold the second debate in “early September at the start of the fall campaign season, early enough to influence early voting, but not so late as to require the candidates to leave the campaign trail in the critical late September and October period.”
Additionally, the campaign said it wants the debate to occur in a TV studio, without an audience, and have microphones that will automatically cut off the candidate when their time is up, and they do not want to have third-party hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. included.
The Times also noted, “The letter, signed by Mr. Biden’s campaign chair, Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, and addressed to the Commission on Presidential Debates, notifies the group that Mr. Biden will not be participating in the three general-election debates sponsored by the commission, which are scheduled for Sept. 16, Oct. 1 and Oct. 9.”
As for the networks that would host the debate, the Biden campaign suggested only networks that held a Republican primary debate in 2016 and a Democratic primary debate in 2020 should be able to host one in 2024. The Times points out, “Networks that meet that mark include CBS News, ABC News, CNN and Telemundo.”
