Editor's note: CNN political analyst Julian Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author and editor of 25 of his 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. Read more opinions on CNN.
CNN —
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump accepted an invitation from CNN to participate in a June 27 debate, nearly four years after they last clashed on stage. Mr. Biden was the first to accept the invitation on Wednesday morning. Posted on X: “I received and accepted an invitation from @CNN to the debate on June 27th. Thanks in advance, Donald. Like you said, anytime, anywhere, anywhere.” President Trump later said He told CNN's Caitlan Collins that he accepted. The June date, much earlier than usual in the general election cycle, reflects the growing importance of early voting and the voracious appetite for political news on cable TV and social media.
And late Wednesday morning, both men said they had also accepted an invitation from the ABC to participate in a second debate on September 10.
For the first time in decades, it was unclear whether there would even be a debate. During the Republican primary, Trump refused to debate in five Republican debates held from August 2023 to last January, hoping to make his opponents feel inferior to him. He preferred to get his own airtime on social media and Fox News. But Trump can't resist the chance to confront the president.
Mr. Biden also seems confident. After all, he stood on stage twice in 2020 and won. He wants to do it again. President Trump seems tempted to act again and again to demonstrate that he is worthy of being commander in chief. Challengers are often more eager to debate than the incumbent, but there are concerns among Democrats and moderates about his age and that Mr. Biden is trailing Mr. Trump in some battleground states. Mr. Biden is likely feeling more pressure than usual to perform on the national stage, given polls showing . Additionally, while sitting presidents typically receive far more attention than those they seek to replace, in this election, the fact that Trump is a former president and can continue to garner media attention This makes the debate even more important for Biden.
The debates will not be held according to the Commission on Presidential Debates' preferred schedule, as campaigns seek to control these high-stakes performances as much as possible and must follow bipartisan rules. It is a sign that you are feeling anxious. body. President Trump has also frequently expressed distrust of the bipartisan commission, saying it is biased against him.
Televised presidential debates are still a relatively new phenomenon in American history. The first televised debate took place on September 26, 1960, when then-Senator John Kennedy and then-Vice President Richard Nixon famously clashed in a series of showdowns that some experts believe He believes he swayed the election in JFK's favor.
There was then a hiatus until 1976, when President Gerald Ford took on former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter. In one of the three debates, Ford made a genre-defining gaffe when he appeared to say that the Soviet Union did not control Eastern Europe. In another debate, the sound equipment famously malfunctioned, leaving both candidates frozen in front of the cameras for almost 30 minutes.
Televised debates continued to be a mainstay of the election cycle. In 1984, President Ronald Reagan used his air time to brush off his concerns about his own age, telling his hosts, the audience, and his opponent, former Vice President Walter Mondale, that Told. I have no intention of exploiting my opponent's youth and experience for political purposes. ” In 1992, President George H.W. Bush looked at his watch and stumbled during a town hall debate between then-Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton and third-party candidate Ross Perot. .
One of the biggest changes that happened in the campaign was who decided on its structure. From 1976 she hosted these debates until 1984, when she left the League of Women Voters in 1988. The debate then took shape through the Commission on Presidential Debates.
Many critics dismiss the current debate as irrelevant. They claim these contests are spectacles made for shallow television (and now social media), with soundbite-ready insults and non-answers to substantive questions. Masu. Over the years, debate production has become more of a show, with news-focused cable and network stations playing a major role in staging and promoting the debate.
But the debate remains important, and it is important that Biden and Trump face off. Despite their shortcomings, debates offer voters the best opportunity to watch people interact over extended periods of time and with minimal scripts. You can often learn a lot about a candidate's personality and stamina through their performance. Just the way the candidates compete against each other gives a good taste of how they conduct business (see Trump prowling menacingly around the stage behind Hillary Clinton in 2016).
During the 2020 election, Biden was effective in debates, pushing back against claims that he was too old for the presidency. President Trump has said many things about himself, including refusing to condemn white supremacists and telling the far-right Proud Boys to “step back and stand by” until January 6, 2021. It revealed that.
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Next month, President Biden will have a chance to show 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 to overthrow an enemy or system. Both singers will have the chance to exploit each other's weaknesses in order to perform as tenors in the upcoming debates.
When voters feel like they know two candidates well, as is the case in 2024, watching them on stage can give them a realistic view of what's real and what's fake. , voters will be reminded of what each candidate can become in an instant. semester.
There are also many unanswered questions, such as the specific rules the committee will use to set no rules and whether third-party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. should participate. CNN's rules include that he must reach 15% of the vote (polls show he has not reached that number).
The contest is likely to be ugly, but it's good for the country to have the debate. At least for the time being, voters will be provided with important information about the candidates, and they will only have to rely on the world of proxies, influencers and social media commentators to understand what's going on. That's no longer the case.
