Joe Biden is raring to debate

What began on Wednesday morning as a cringy campaign video has resulted in an official debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Both candidates have agreed to appear in a June 27 debate hosted by CNN and a second on September 10 hosted by ABC.

The announcements came after Biden said on Wednesday that he will not participate in debates hosted by the Commission on Presidential Debates and instead proposed face-offs with Trump in June and September moderated by news organizations. Hours later, Biden accepted an offer from CNN to host the first debate.

“Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020. Since then, he hasn’t shown up for a debate. Now he’s acting like he wants to debate me again,” Biden bragged in a video posted to X. Despite Biden’s attempted projection of strength, the fourteen-second video took five cuts to piece together, feeling more like a jump-scare than a campaign announcement. At least, his team was able to edit out teleprompter instructions this time. 

“Well make my day pal. I’ll even do it twice. So let’s pick the dates, Donald — I hear you’re free on Wednesdays,” Biden continued, alluding to Trump’s court schedule. 

In a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates, Biden’s campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon complained that the organization hosts its debates too late in the election cycles and promotes entertainment spectacles with huge audiences. 

“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,” Dillon wrote. 

Lest Biden forget, the 2020 debates were conducted at nearly empty venues and still developed into spectacle, much like a nursing home fight club. Biden’s impassioned “will you shut up man” never fails to send a shiver down Cockburn’s spine.  

While Trump announced that he would debate Biden at least twice, the former president insisted on a live audience. “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 posted on Truth Social.