Biden and Trump Agree to Debate

Joe Biden and Donald Trump agree on terms for a set of presidential debates...

From NPR

President Biden and former President Donald Trump have agreed to a pair of presidential debates hosted by television networks, circumventing the schedule and traditional format proposed by the Commission on Presidential Debates.

Biden and Trump will first debate on June 27. The event, hosted by CNN and announced by the network and the respective campaigns, will not feature an audience and will take place at CNN's Atlanta studios.

The second debate, hosted by ABC News, will be Sept. 10. A location has not yet been announced.

The dates were set Wednesday, hours after Biden's campaign announced he would not participate in the process that the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates had proposed. The campaign laid out their own terms instead.

Trump responded to Biden's call in a post on his Truth Social platform, saying he was "ready and willing" to debate Biden, and his campaign called for additional debates in July and August as well.

Biden's campaign also objects to the audiences — which it described as "raucous or disruptive partisans and donors, who consume valuable debate time with noisy spectacles of approval or jeering."

Other terms include having microphones open only when it is the candidates turn to speak.

Biden's campaign also nixed the idea of including third-party or independent candidates in the debates, saying they "should be one-on-one, allowing voters to compare the only two candidates with any statistical chance of prevailing in the Electoral College — and not squandering debate time on candidates with no prospect of becoming president."