Biden Letter to Debate Commission - The New York Times

BIDEN

PRESIDENT

June 22, 2020

Ms. DorothyRidings Mr.Frank Fahrenkopf Mr.KennethWollack Commissionon PresidentiaDl ebates Washington, DC

Dear Co -Chairs Ridings, FahrenkopfandWollack :

am writing on behalf of Vice PresidentJoe Biden , the presumptive Democratic nominee for President, regarding the 2020 PresidentialDebates. While know that no formaldebate invitation will be issued to Joe Biden or Donald Trump until after the Party Conventions and the CPD's invitation process, Iwanted to set forth our views on how the Commission should proceed with planning for the fall debates. Specifically, I want to address three issues for the Commission'sconsideration.

First, once formally invited, Vice President Biden will accept andparticipate in the Commission's planned Presidential candidates' debates for September 29 October 15 , and October 22; hisrunning mate will participatein the Vice Presidentialcandidates' debate set for October 7. Wehope that President Trump and Vice President Pence will similarly indicate their willingness to participate. Joe Biden looks forward to facing Donald Trumpin a mult-idebate series that the American people have cometo expect from their leaders; wehope that President Trumpwould not break that tradition or make excuses for a refusalto participate.

Now that Donald Trump is trailing badly in the polls, and is desperate to change the subject from his failed leadership of the country, we are seeing reports that hehashis own proposal for debates after having said , just six monthsago , thathemight notwant to participate at all in planneddebates. No one should be fooled : the Trump campaign's new position is a debate distraction. The Trump position seemsto be saying that hewilldebate ifhe can pick moderators: clearly the President, who largely conducts interviews only with favorable newsoutlets, is afraid of facing questions from a neutral moderator. The Trump campaign proposal for elaboratenegotiations is merely an effort to dodge fair, even-handed debates.

Ourposition is straightforward and clear : Biden will accept the Commission's debates, on the Commission's dates, under the Commission's established format and the Commission's independent choice ofmoderators. Donald Trump and MikePence should do the same. That is what every candidate for President andVice President have done inmodern times, Democrat and Republican alike. That is what the Biden campaign iswilling to do. Any " debate proposals" in lieu of that are just an effort to change the subject, avoid debates, or create a distracting " debate aboutdebates.

Second, because wedo notwant there to be any reason for cancelling the debates, wewould

like to confirm that the Commission has made plans for debate arrangements if

control measures

threaten to impact the conduct of the debates as planned. There is no reason why Vice PresidentBiden and PresidentTrump cannotmeet for debates with appropriate safety and socialdistancingmeasures (set by public health authorities) on the three dates the CPD has identified. Nothing should preventthe conduct of debates between Joe Biden and Donald Trump on these dates; again, we do notwant to provide President Trump with any excuses for notdebating.

Third, we hope that the CPD will adopt a Town Hall format for the second Presidential debate

(as it has for every debate cycle since 1992), and that it makes provisions for citizen participation in that

debate even if

remains a concern. Duringhis primary campaign , VicePresident Biden welcomed

directquestionsfrom uncommitted voters on a frequentbasis, and we think it is time that President

Trump faced such questioning himself. Weknow that voters havemany, many questions for the

President

Thank you for your consideration of these requests. We look forward to your promptresponse.

Sincerely ,

Jen

Dillon

CampaignManager

Biden for President

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