President Joe Biden’s campaign has requested that audiences be banned from the upcoming presidential debates with former President Donald Trump. This request seems to be aimed at minimizing the presence of any potential Biden protestors at the debates, as anti-Israel protestors have been known to show up at Biden’s public events.
The Biden campaign formally notified the Commission on Presidential Debates that they would not take part in commission-sponsored debates, opting instead to participate only in network debates. As of now, the Trump campaign has not agreed to Biden’s proposal.
“The Commission’s model of building huge spectacles with large audiences at great expense simply isn’t necessary or conducive to good debates,” the Biden campaign wrote:
“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. As was the case with the original televised debates in 1960, a television studio with just the candidates and moderators is a better, more cost-effective way to proceed: focused solely on the interests of voters.”
Joe Biden’s campaign just put out a letter saying they don’t want the debate to be in front of an audience.
Ask yourself why. pic.twitter.com/AaZ7rnIagY
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) May 15, 2024
Biden unveiled a video on Wednesday morning, presenting his proposal for two debates scheduled in June and September. “I’ve received and accepted an invitation from @CNN for a debate on June 27th,” Biden posted on X. “Over to you, Donald. As you said: anywhere, anytime, any place.”
Ron Klain, who served as the White House chief of staff in the past, has been appointed by Biden to assist him in debate preparation. In an interview with the New York Times on Wednesday, Klain expressed his commitment to supporting Biden in this capacity. Klain had also conveyed to Jen Psaki of MSNBC, who previously worked as Biden’s White House press secretary, that it is imperative to ensure that rules are strictly adhered to in anticipation of any debates involving Biden and Trump.
“I think what we have to see is something different than we saw in 2016 and 2020, where the debate commission lost control of the debates, Trump didn’t follow the rules at all, he talked over his opponents, there wasn’t a fair division of time, it was more a spectacle than a debate,” Klain claimed. “That’s always going to be true with Donald Trump on the stage.”