PHOENIX (AP) — The nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, which has planned presidential faceoffs in every election since 1988, has an uncertain future after President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump struck an agreement to meet on their own.
The Biden and Trump campaigns announced a deal Wednesday to meet for debates in June on CNN and September on ABC. Just a day earlier, Frank Fahrenkopf, chair of the Commission on Presidential Debates, had sounded optimistic that the candidates would eventually come around to accepting the commission’s debates.
“There’s no way you can force anyone to debate,” Fahrenkopf said in a virtual meeting of supporters of No Labels, which has continued as an advocacy group after it abandoned plans for a third-party presidential ticket. But he noted candidates have repeatedly toyed with skipping debates or finding alternatives before eventually showing up, though one was canceled in 2020 when Trump refused to appear virtually after he contracted COVID-19.
Not so Cool Britannia! Noel Gallagher gives damning verdict on Keir Starmer
Study says El Nino, not climate change, was key driver of low rainfall that snarled Panama Canal
Powell likely to signal that lower inflation is needed before Fed would cut rates
US overdose deaths dropped in 2023, the first time since 2018
Rojas and Castellanos homer in the 9th, leading the Phillies to a 7
King Charles says his 'thoughts and prayers' are with family of 14
Four people killed in a house explosion in southwestern Missouri
Colombia's president says thousands of grenades and bullets have gone missing from army bases