BREAKING: First Biden/Trump debate set for June 27 in Atlanta
CNN to host first 2024 Biden/Trump faceoff
The first 2024 general election debate will take place in six short weeks in one of the biggest developments yet in an unprecedented presidential rematch.
President Joe Biden and Republican nominee Donald Trump have accepted a CNN invitation to a June 27 faceoff at the network’s studios in Atlanta, Georgia.
No audience will be present and there will be no third-party candidates onstage.
It is set to be the earliest head-to-head faceoff between nominees since televised debates began in 1960 — which was also the only other election that saw debates hosted by television networks.
Debates have historically been hosted by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, but both the Biden and Trump campaigns argue that voting will already be underway in many states during the CPD’s traditional September-October schedule.
Shortly after challenging his archrival to two debates, President Biden said that he accepted CNN’s June 27 debate invitation. “Over to you, Donald,” Biden said. “As you said: anywhere, any time, any place.”
Trump said on his social media platform that he is “ready and willing” to debate Biden in June and then again in September. He also added that he would like to take part in more debates.
The upcoming and debate will be moderated by CNN hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned news unit later announced.
The June debate comes as both men continue to poll neck-and-neck nationwide and in several swing states. And it is not lost on either campaign that the first debate is being held in Georgia, which Biden captured by fewer than 12,000 votes in their previous matchup.
Many analysts agreed at the time that it was Biden who came out on top in the 2020 general election debates. But the Trump campaign believes that President Biden has gotten rustier since then and likely sees an opportunity to seize the narrative on issues where their nominee polls the strongest, such as the economy and immigration.
Biden, meanwhile, appears to recognize that his opponent’s ongoing New York criminal trial isn’t moving the needle and that a debate could be his best opportunity to present voters with a clear contrast.
A vice presidential debate has been proposed for the end of July.