Opinion: Why Biden’s eager to debate Trump | CNN (2024)

Editor’s Note: Julian Zelizer, a CNN political analyst, is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author and editor of 25 books, including the forthcoming book “Our Nation at Risk: Election Integrity as a National Security Issue.” Follow him on Twitter@julianzelizer. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. Viewmore opinionon CNN.

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President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have bothaccepted an invitation from CNNto debate on June 27, nearly four years since they last clashed onstage. Biden, who was first to accept the invitation Wednesday morning,postedon X: “I’ve received and accepted an invitation from @CNN for a debate on June 27. Over to you, Donald. As you said: anywhere, anytime, any place.” Trump later told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins he also accepted.The June date,much earlier in the general election cycle than usual,is a reflection of the growing importance of early voting as well as the voracious appetite for political news on cable television and social media.

And later Wednesday morning, both men said they also accepted an invitation from ABC to a second debate on September 10.

For the first time in decades, whether there would even be debates had been uncertain. During the Republican primaries, Trumprefused to debatehis opponents in the five GOP debates that were hosted from August 2023 to last January, hoping to make them seem beneath him. He preferred to get hisown airtimeonsocial mediaandFox News. But Trump can’t resist a chance to take on the president.

Biden seems confident as well. After all, he took the stage twice in 2020 and won. He wants to do it again. Trump seems to be tempted to go mano a mano and show that he is better fit to becommander in chief.Although challengers are frequently more eager to debate than incumbents, Biden is likely feeling more pressure than usual to perform on the national stage given concerns within the Democratic Party and among moderates about his ageand polls showing he is trailing Trump in some swing states.Moreover, while incumbent presidents normally enjoy far more attention than those seeking to replace them, in this election the fact that Trump is a former president and one who is able to command ongoing media attention makes the debates more important for Biden.

The debates will not take place according to the schedule preferred by theCommission on Presidential Debates, a sign of how campaigns are seeking as much control as possible over these high-stakes performances and are uneasy with having to follow the rules set up by the nonpartisan body. Trump has also frequentlyexpressedhis distrust of the nonpartisan commission, which he says is biased against him.

Televised presidential debates are still a relatively new phenomenon in American history. Thefirst televised debatetook place on September 26,1960, as then-Senator John Kennedy and then-VicePresident Richard Nixon famously squared off in a series of encounters that some experts credited withswinging the election in JFK’s favor.

Then there was a break until1976, when President Gerald Ford took on former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter. One of the three debatesfeatureda genre-defining gaffe when Ford seemed to be saying that the Soviet Union did not dominate Eastern Europe. Another debate became famouswhen the sound equipment broke down, and both candidates stood essentiallyfrozenin front of the cameras for almost a half hour.

Televised debates remained a central part of the election cycle. In 1984, President Ronald Reagan used the airtime to shoot down concerns about his age,tellingthe moderators, the audience and his opponent, former Vice President Walter Mondale, that “I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.”In 1992, President George H.W. Bushstumbledby looking at his watch in the middle of a town hall debate withthen-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton and third-party candidate Ross Perot.

One of the biggest changes that took place in campaigns was who determined the structure. The League of Women Voters, whichsponsoredthese debates from 1976 to 1984, withdrew in 1988. The debates then took shape through theCommission on Presidential Debates.

Many critics dismiss the current debates as irrelevant. Theyarguethat these contests are shallow, made-for-television (and now social media)spectaclesthat involve soundbite-readyinsults and non-answers to substantive questions. Over the years, the staging of the debates has also become more of a show, as news-centered cable and network stations play a bigger role in staging and promoting them.

But the debates still matter, and it is important that Biden and Trump will square off. For all their flaws, the debates still offer voters the best opportunity to see the people running for extended periods of time and in the least-scripted interaction that will take place. It is often possible tolearna great deal about the character and stamina of the candidates through how they perform. Just the way that the candidates fight each other gives a good flavor about how they conduct their business (see Trump menacinglyprowling around the stagebehind Hillary Clinton in 2016).

During the 2020 election, Biden was effective during the debates, pushing back against claims that he was too old for the presidency. Trump revealed muchabout himself, such as when he refused to condemn White supremacists and told the far-right group Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by,” which they did until January 6, 2021.

Next month, President Biden will have an opportunity to demonstrate that concerns about his age are misplaced. Former President Trump will have a chance to prove that he has some kind of compelling vision for the country beyond his desire totake down his opponentsand the establishment. Both men will have the chance to cut into the weaknesses of each other, trying to set to tenor for the debate that is to come.

When voters feel that they know the two candidates so well, as is the case in 2024, watching them on stage will offer a reality check about what is real and what is fake, and remind voters of what each man would be like in a second term.

There are also many questions still to be settled, including the specific rules that will be used since the commission won’t set them and whether third-party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. should participate (CNN’s rulesincludethat he must reach 15% in the polls,a figure he hasn’t reached).

As ugly as the contest is likely to be, it is better for the nationthatwe have debates.For the moment, at least, it will give crucial information about the candidates to the voters, who won’t only have to rely onthe world of surrogates, influencers and social media commentatorsto make sense of what’s going on.