Dem
51
GOP
49
In a surprising announcement on Friday, Joe Biden told radio host Howard Stern that he would be happy to debate Donald Trump in the fall. Previously, Biden had been noncommittal.
Trump responded by tweeting: "Everyone knows he doesn't really mean it." A bigger question is whether Trump would agree. He skipped all the primary debates and is out of practice. A danger for him is that he claims Biden is old and demented, and if Biden does well in one or more debates, that will effectively kill off that argument. It's a serious risk. Also, Trump has lied about so many things, the moderators could bring up his many lies and contradictions and expose them to a wider audience. They could also put him on the spot in terms of his position on abortion access. His current position is "leave it up to the states." What happens if a moderator says: "Suppose Republicans control Congress and pass a bill banning all abortions nationwide. Would you sign it or veto it?" He really doesn't want to be forced to answer that question on national television. For Biden it would be easy: "I would veto it."
There is also the question of who would organize the debates. In April 2022, the RNC pulled out of the Commission on Presidential Debates. Then there is the problem of Trump speaking over his opponents at debates and whether Biden would insist on giving the moderators switches to kill the candidates' mics if they spoke out of turn. In short, don't pencil a presidential debate into your calendar quite yet. (V)