President Joe Biden recently said he’d be “happy” to debate former President Donald Trump ahead of the general presidential election in November 2024.
Biden says he's 'happy' to face Trump in a debatehttps://t.co/S0oDkzZbcV
— RSBN 🇺🇸 (@RSBNetwork) April 26, 2024
The president’s surprising comments come after months of pressure from Trump’s campaign and mainstream media networks, according to Newsmax.
While appearing in a surprise interview with radio host Howard Stern, Biden, when asked if he would debate the former president, said it would happen “somewhere, I don’t know when, but I am happy to debate him.”
The president’s comments come as Trump was in Manhattan court, where his criminal trial on falsifying business records continues.
The rapid response director for the Republican National Committee (RNC), Jake Schneider, responded to Biden’s remarks, saying, “Let’s set it up.”
Newsmax pointed out that for months, the president and his campaign refused to pledge to appear on a debate stage with the former president.
A prominent Democrat with close knowledge of the Biden campaign’s strategy said the president’s comment appeared to be made off the record instead of an official announcement.
The Associated Press (AP) and five other major networks previously wrote to the Biden and Trump campaigns, urging them to participate in a debate. Most of the president’s advisers have criticized the presidential debate system and the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates.
In November 2023, the commission announced that presidential debates would be held in the following states: Texas, Virginia and Utah. A vice presidential debate is scheduled to be held in Easton, Pennsylvania.
Following the commission’s announcement, the Trump campaign asked that more debates be added to the schedule and that three debates be moved to the fall.
The former president has also pushed Biden to debate multiple times throughout the campaign trial. In one Truth Social post, Trump declared his willingness to debate the president “anytime, anywhere, anyplace.”
After telling reporters that he would be thrilled to debate the presumptive presidential nominee, Biden spoke about his feelings of despair his first wife, Neilia, and 13-month-old daughter, Naomi, who were killed in a car accident. He said he would oftentimes think of intoxicating himself although he wasn’t a drinker.
“I just thought about it, you don’t need to be crazy to commit suicide,” Biden told Stern. “If you’ve been up to the top of the mountain, you think it’s never going to be there again. I thought, ‘Let me just go to the Delaware Memorial [Bridge] and jump.”
