While most presidential debates are anticipated – more or less a foregone conclusion – a 2024 face-off has been in doubt.
Many pundits have predicted that a head-to-head debate between President Biden and President Trump will not take place. Those prognostications appear to be based on hints from Biden operatives that the President will not share the debate stage with Trump. Their reasoning is that Trump will not behave himself – and they do not wish to provide him with an opportunity to expound. They claim that such a debate will devolve into a political circus.
Conversely, many pundits believe the real reason Biden will not agree to a debate is that he may not come off well. He would be outside of the protective bubble that has limited his appearances to scripted and controlled messaging. They believe the risk of a gaffe or senior moment is too high.
The general assumption that Biden would not engage in debate with Trump was set back during an appearance on the Howard Stern Show. The host said to Biden, “I don’t know if you’re going to debate your opponent.” To which Biden responded, “I am somewhere. I don’t know when. I’m happy to debate him.”
The reply comes from the man himself. It was unequivocal. He WILL debate Trump – just a matter of when and where. A presidential debate is “to be.” Or is it?
Uncertainty remains for several reasons. This was a bold announcement, and yet there was not a lot of confirmation by Biden handlers and spokespersons. The various responses could be summed up with “Yes, Biden definitely wants to debate Trump, but …” It is that “but” that casts a shadow of doubt.
Another thing that casts doubts on Biden’s statement is that there has been no planning for such a debate. By now negotiating teams should have been appointed to consider the venues and the format. Negotiating a presidential debate is not an easy or quick process.
Was Biden’s response to Stern a strategic announcement or was it another gaffe – Biden winging it on his own when not looking at his ubiquitous talking-point cheat sheets?
That would not be surprising. Biden has a habit of making very strong or definitive statements only to backslide. (Does Ukraine, Israel and border security come to mind?) We have seen the White House occasionally “clarify” such statements – essentially announcing that Biden did not mean what he said. (Remember Biden saying that Putin could not be allowed to stay in power, and the White House served up a correction?)
No Biden or campaign spokesperson has given up on the original argument that Biden should not – and will not – give Trump a platform to … shall we say … do his thing,
If the Biden/Trump debate is “not to be,” it will likely be scuttled in some negotiations. The Biden team will claim that they simply could not agree on the specifics — blaming Trump for the impasse, of course.
The fact that the media did not give Biden’s important newsworthy announcement more coverage and follow-up suggests that the folks in the Fourth Estate are not taking Biden’s stated willingness to debate seriously. They are not convinced – nor am I.
So, there ‘tis.