The President wants an alternative schedule and format.
USA Today (“Defying election tradition, Biden proposes debating Trump twice, wants first one in June.“) buries the lede:
President Joe Biden says he is willing to debate Donald Trump twice before the general election — and he wants the first one to take place in June, setting the stage for the earliest head-to-head competition among the major parties’ candidate in modern history.
Biden’s campaign informed the Commission on Presidential Debates, which has hosted the matches since 1988, that it would not be participating in a series of debates scheduled for the fall.
To me, that’s the obviously headline. It takes quite a while for the story to circle back to it, with an explanation:
[A statement by the Biden team] complained that the commission’s debates are structured like an “entertainment spectacle and not a serious exchange of ideas that reflect the enormous stakes of the election” and dinged the organization for past failings to enforce its own rules.
While I take the point, there’s essentially no way to enforce the rules without the moderators appearing to take sides. There’s a pretty long history of candidates talking over their opponents, crowding their space when speaking, and otherwise attempting to impose their will. Moderators usually issue gentle warnings but kind of let it happen. On very rare occasions, they shut off microphones or otherwise try to dominate. Invariably, that leads supporters of the affected candidate to cry Foul.
Biden may well get his way, though.
In a statement, the Biden campaign said it wants the first to debate to take place June, when Trump’s hush money trail in New York is “likely to be over” and after Biden returns from the Group of Seven Summit in mid June before Republicans officially award their nomination.
