AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File; AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File
- President Joe Biden and Donald Trump have agreed to debate in June.
- Biden also trolled the former president.
- The president's campaign is selling a t-shirt that pokes fun at Trump's Manhattan criminal trial.
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump agreed Wednesday to an unprecedented June presidential debate. They later agreed to a September debate.
The two candidates quickly accepted CNN's offer to attend a June 27th debate at the news network's Atlanta studios. It will easily be the earliest televised, major presidential debate in history. There will be no audience, an occurrence that hasn't happened for decades. Debate moderators were not immediately announced.
The September debate will be held on September 10. ABC will host that debate.
Unlike other recent debates, CNN's June event appears to be set to air exclusively on the network's platforms. While viewers will be able to watch the contest on CNN.com without a cable subscription, there was no indication that the live debate will be aired on competing networks. In comparison, 16 networks aired live coverage of the first 2020 presidential debate. An estimated 73.1 million people tuned in, per Nielsen Media Data.
Presidential debates are traditionally one of the most viewed TV events of the year, a rare exception to the almost universal dominance that sporting events hold on the live TV calendar. It remains to be seen how ratings will be affected if only CNN airs the debate.
Earlier in the day, Biden's campaign proposed two presidential debates outside the traditional nonpartisan organization that has scheduled such contests for decades Trump's campaign accepted Biden's offer but countered that the pair should face off more than twice. The former president's team proposed 4 debates, floating potential July and August debates.
Both sides agreed to hold the traditional single vice-presidential debate as well.
Biden campaign merchandise
Biden sells merchandise to troll Trump
Biden's reelection team started selling a "Free on Wednesdays" shirt to tout their debate proposal before Trump accepted the June proposal. The shirt is a not-so-subtle reference to Trump's ongoing Manhattan criminal trial. Trump is in court most of the week and has fallen asleep throughout the trial.
One of the few exceptions is Wednesdays when Justice Juan Merchan has scheduled breaks in the proceedings.
"Trump's acting like he wants to debate the President," the item's description reads. "We hear he's free on Wednesdays. Let's do it!"
The shirt costs $32 and is the latest example of a burgeoning trend where campaigns try to make money from merchandise to meet short-lived trends. Non-traditional merchandise can be lucrative to campaigns; Trump's 2020 reelection famously made more than $450,000 from plastic straw sales alone.
In accepting Biden's broad invitation, Trump said the pair should meet more than twice. Traditionally, presidential candidates square off three times, including a town hall-style debate.
"I would strongly recommend more than two debates and, for excitement purposes, a very large venue, although Biden is supposedly afraid of crowds - That's only because he doesn't get them," Trump wrote on Truth, his social media platform. "Just tell me when, I'll be there. 'Let's get ready to Rumble!!!'"
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the best-positioned third-party challenger, is unlikely to join Trump and Biden next month. Third-party presidential candidates have historically struggled to make the debate stage since The Commission on Presidential Debates began imposing a polling threshold in 2000. In addition to imposing a polling threshold, CNN is requiring all participants to have qualified to be on the ballot in enough states to be able to win 270 Electoral College votes. Kennedy is nowhere near that level.
This is the biggest shakeup to presidential debates in decades.
The debate commission has chosen the venues and moderators for decades. Its power was once unquestioned, but Republicans and Democrats have become critical of the organization. The Republican National Committee formally withdrew from the commission in 2022. Trump's campaign furthered this criticism by blasting the group for not scheduling a debate until September.
Biden's campaign agreed with this critique. In a letter to the commission, Biden campaign chair Jen O'Malley Dillon went even further. She criticized the organization for straying away from what presidential debates should be.
"The Commission's model of building huge spectacles with large audiences at great expense simply isn't necessary or conducive to good debates," O'Malley Dillon wrote. "The debates should be conducted for the benefit of the American voters, watching on television and at home– not as entertainment for an in-person audience with raucous or disruptive partisans and donors, who consume valuable debate time with noisy spectacles of approval or jeering."