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President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have agreed to two debates leading up to the 2024 U.S. elections, with the first in June and the second in September. That development followed months of public speculation about whether there would be any debates between the two candidates at all and, if so, what those debates would look like.
Watch the above video as Straight Arrow News contributor John Fortier analyzes what this says about how debates work and then explores a few of the concerns that Americans have on both the right and left sides of the political spectrum.
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The following is an excerpt of the above video:
So with opposition from both parties, why did we end up having debates? Ultimately, it was a political calculation on both sides that led to our speedy debate agreement. Former President Trump, even though his party had disavowed the official commissioned debates, believed that he would have an advantage debating President Biden. He issued an anywhere, anytime challenge to the Biden campaign to have debates.
Politically, this challenge worked well for Trump, as he expressed confidence and openness to debate while the ball was in the President Biden’s court. Then, very suddenly, President Biden’s campaign issued a challenge to the Trump campaign to have two debates with certain conditions: no audience, only certain networks as hosts and not too close to the November election. Perhaps some would have expected Donald Trump to waver or negotiate over the conditions, but his campaign immediately agreed to the debates. So now we will have a June and September debate, and Donald Trump is still pushing for additional debates.
At the end of the day, this process shows that the heart of scheduling presidential debates is a negotiation between both campaigns and an agreement by both that the debates are in their political interest.
