President Joe Biden appeared on Howard Stern’s radio show this morning, and as NBC News reported, the incumbent Democrat made some news about his general-election plans.
President Joe Biden said Friday during a one-on-one interview with radio host Howard Stern that he is willing to debate Donald Trump ahead of the 2024 presidential election. “I am, somewhere, I don’t know when, but I am happy to debate him,” Biden said in the interview.
The former president hasn’t yet publicly reacted to Biden’s comments, though it’s likely Trump will be pleased.
Circling back to our recent coverage, it’s difficult to overstate just how eager the presumptive GOP nominee is to participate in general-election debates against Biden. Last summer, for example, the Republican said the debates “definitely” have to happen. Soon after, the former president suggested he’d like to see 10 debates, rather than the usual three.
Last month, Trump used his social media platform to declare that he’s prepared to debate the Democratic incumbent “ANYTIME, ANYWHERE, ANYPLACE,” regardless of who organizes the events. (The Republican National Committee’s official position is to reject debates held by the independent Commission on Presidential Debates.)
Earlier this month, the former president headlined a rally in Wisconsin and appeared alongside an empty podium on the stage. “This is for Joe Biden,” Trump said. “I am trying to get him to debate.”
For his part, the incumbent and his team have expressed far less enthusiasm. Asked recently about whether he intends to share a stage with Trump in the fall, Biden replied, “It depends on his behavior.”
Asked a month earlier about his predecessor’s fixation on the matter, the president said, “If I were him, I’d want him to debate me, too. He’s got nothing else to do.”
With this recent history in mind, Biden’s comments to Stern this morning represented a clear shift. They also increased the likelihood that at least one general-election debate will actually happen this year.
That said, the Democrat has a credible case for turning down the opportunity to share a stage with his rival. Though it’s understandable that many voters have chosen to block this from memory, four years ago, Trump’s behavior during the debates was a national embarrassment. Viewers saw an incumbent president lying, raging, heckling, erupting, and interrupting, to the point that one of own debate coaches acknowledged Trump’s on-stage failures.
It was also four years ago when Trump used a debate to send a message to a neo-fascist group: “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.” The 2020 presidential debates were so dreadful — due entirely to Trump’s indefensible tantrums — that The New York Times reported at the time, “The unedifying spectacle of Tuesday night’s presidential debate produced some shock, some sadness and some weariness among American allies and rivals alike.” The report added that some international observers were so mortified by the display that “many wondered if the chaos and tenor of the event said something more fundamental about the state of American democracy.” In the years that followed, Trump’s antics, hostility toward democracy, and willingness to tolerate — and by some measures, encourage — political violence has become even more overt. If Biden ultimately agrees to participate, it’s likely there would be some public benefit, but it’s not as if the presumptive GOP nominee necessarily deserves a global platform. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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