WASHINGTON – The President of the United States, Joe Biden, said during an interview Friday that he was willing to publicly debate his predecessor and Republican opponent Donald Trump, who he will face in the November elections.
When the presenter Howard Stern Asked if he would participate in a public debate with Trump, the 81-year-old Democrat and candidate for a second term replied: “I will, somewhere. I don't know when. I would be there.” happy to be able to do it.”
Biden's team has not commented for months on its willingness to follow the tradition of a televised debate between candidates, usually moderated by a well-known journalist. Biden has suffered episodes of disorientation at public events, forgets or confuses people's names, and has fallen several times.
During the last few months, Trump did not want to participate in the Republican primary debates, arguing that he did not need to due to the marked distance with his political rivals, but that did not prevent him from sweeping vote after vote. And his adversaries withdrew from the fight.
Trump responds
But Trump seems excited about the idea of debating Biden.
“AT ANY TIME, ANYWHERE, ANYWHERE,” he stated this Friday on his Truth Social network.
“I propose Monday night, Tuesday night or Wednesday night, during my rally in Michigan,” he added.
In the same message he suggested holding the debate “tonight, in court.” “I'll wait!”
The Republican is on trial in New York for allegedly falsifying business records to “hide” a payment to a porn actress in order to buy her silence over an alleged extramarital affair before the 2016 election.
Biden, who has described Trump as a threat to democracy, despite the fact that during his administration the United States did not enter into a war, told reporters last month that a possible debate with the real estate magnate “depends on his behavior.” in an attempt to evade it.
Dates?
The nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) has already set three dates and places for Trump and Biden to face each other for the 2024 elections, at American universities in September and October.
But Trump criticized the CPD as biased in favor of the Democrat for having planned to move a third and final debate in 2020 to a videoconference format due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Then-President Trump attended the second 2020 debate against Biden just three days before testing positive for COVID.
Biden then said he would not participate in another in-person debate with him while the Republican was still ill.
