Networks to urge Biden, Trump to debate
In an unusual move, the five major broadcast and cable news networks have prepared a joint open letter that urges President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump to participate in televised debates before Election Day, according to two people with direct knowledge of their plans.
The letter — endorsed by ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and Fox News — thrusts into public view a question that has swirled within media and political circles: whether the presidential debates, one of the nation’s last remaining mass civic rituals in a polarized age, will occur this year at all.
“We, the undersigned national news organizations, urge the presumptive presidential nominees to publicly commit to participating in general election debates before November’s election,” the letter reads, according to a draft version obtained by The New York Times.
The letter is not yet final, and the networks are also seeking endorsements from other leading national news organizations, including newspapers.
Biden repeatedly has declined to commit to participating in the three debates scheduled for September and October. His aides say they are concerned that the Commission on Presidential Debates, the nonpartisan group that has organized the telecasts since 1988, will be unable to enforce the rules when Trump takes the stage.
Trump has vowed to debate and has taken to taunting Biden for not following suit. But Trump’s track record is mixed: In 2020, he pulled out of a debate against Biden at the last minute, prompting its cancellation, and in the recent Republican primaries he refused to appear onstage, even once, with his opponents.
The television networks’ letter was organized as a response to the uncertainty, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private discussions about an ongoing effort.
“General election debates have a rich tradition in our American democracy, having played a vital role in every presidential election of the past 50 years dating to 1976,” the draft letter reads. “In each of those elections, tens of millions have tuned in to watch the candidates debating side by side, in a competition of ideas, for the votes of American citizens.”