Biden Vs. Trump Live: Networks & Cable Newsers Exhort Candidates To “Publicly Commit” To Debate
10.04.2024 - 04:23
/ deadline.com
Is 2024 about to become the new 1972?
Richard Nixon and George McGovern’s battle for the White House 52 years ago was the last time the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates did not directly debate.
With President Joe Biden refusing to say whether or not he will get on a stage with Donald Trump this year, the broadcast networks and cable newsers have banded together to try to convince the incumbent and his predecessor to “publicly commit” to debates.
“We, the undersigned national news organizations, urge the presumptive presidential nominees to publicly commit to participating in general election debates before November’s election,” states an as-yet-unsent letter that Deadline has seen from NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox News and CNN to the Trump and Biden campaigns.
“If there is one thing Americans can agree on, during this polarized time, it is that the stakes of this election are exceptionally high,” the correspondence also says, noting that in every election since 1976 “tens of millions have tuned in” to Presidential debates. “There is simply no substitute for the candidates debating with each other, and before the American people, their visions for the future of the nation.”
First reported by the New York Times, the letter has gone unsent due in part to ongoing efforts to get the likes of the Gray Lady and other national publications to sign on too, I hear. Neither the Trump campaign nor the Biden campaign responded to request for comment from Deadline on the letter.
In many ways, the letter is intended for incumbent Biden over Trump, as the much-indicted former POTUS has already repeatedly publicly challenged his 2020 opponent to televised face-offs.
After the chaotic, caustic and Covid-19 infused debates of