In a recent development, the campaign team of former President Donald Trump has dispatched a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates. The letter, sent on Thursday, urges for the general election debates of this year to be scheduled “much earlier” and for an increase in their number.
Trump’s campaign managers, Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, expressed their stance in the letter, “While the Commission on Presidential Debates has already announced three presidential debates and a vice-presidential debate to occur later this year, we are in favor of these debates beginning much earlier.”
They further argued that due to the trend of earlier voting in recent elections, the commission should advance the timetable of its proposed 2024 debates. This would ensure that more Americans have ample opportunity to evaluate the candidates before they start voting. They also advocated for the addition of more debates to the currently proposed schedule.
“We have already indicated President Trump is willing to debate anytime, anyplace, and anywhere – and the time to start these debates is now,” they added.
The first presidential debate is currently scheduled for September 16 in San Marcos, Texas, 50 days before Election Day on November 5. This schedule is already earlier than in recent years. For instance, in 2020, the first debate between Trump and Joe Biden took place 35 days before Election Day, and in 2016, the first debate between Trump and Hillary Clinton occurred 43 days before Election Day.
The letter from Trump’s campaign follows a joint letter from five major US television networks, including CNN, urging the former president and Biden to commit to participating in televised debates ahead of the 2024 election. The networks, which also include NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox News, called on the presumptive presidential nominees to publicly commit to participating in general election debates before November’s election.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) officials also commented on the debates in response to the Trump campaign’s letter. RNC Chairman Michael Whatley and co-chair Lara Trump stated, “Election calendars have become longer than ever before — and scheduling debates after millions of Americans have already cast their ballots does a grave disservice to voters who want to hear solutions to the economic, border, and crime crises created by Joe Biden.”
President Biden has not publicly committed to debating Trump, although he has not ruled it out. “It depends on his behavior,” the president said in early March.
Contributions to this report were made by CNN’s Ethan Cohen and Hadas Gold.