Will Trump And Biden Debate This Election? Does It Matter?

Diane Rehm: On My Mind

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🗓️ 3 May 2024

⏱️ 38 minutes

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Summary

Will Biden and Trump take the stage?

Last week President Biden said he would be willing to debate Donald Trump ahead of this year’s election in November.

This came after months of back and forth between the candidates. Biden’s answers had been coy regarding a face off, citing the “behavior” of the former president. This was likely referencing Trump’s frequent interruptions and name calling in their 2020 meetings.

Meanwhile the GOP turned this reluctance into a campaign talking point, claiming Biden was afraid to face the former president and the American people.

If their commitments to share the stage fall through, this would be the first presidential campaign since 1976 without a debate. But with so many other methods available for candidates to reach potential voters, do debates even matter anymore?

“Candidates control so much of the campaign process with their ralies, ads and conventions,” says Mitchell McKinney, dean of the Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Akron and an expert on political communication. “We the votes deserve a moment when they are not in control, and debates provide that.”

McKinney joins Diane to talk about the past, present, and continued relevance of presidential debates.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi it's Diane on my mind. We old Biden and Trump take that stage. Last week, President Biden said he is willing to debate with Donald
0:17.8	Trump ahead this year's election. This came after weeks of back and forth between the candidates.
0:27.0	Biden's answers had been coy regarding the face-off citing the behavior of the former president.
0:36.1	Meanwhile, the GOP turns its reluctance
0:39.8	into a campaign talking point.
0:42.8	It's got me thinking just how much do debates really matter.
0:49.0	Candidates control so much of the campaign process of their rallies of their ads of the conventions
0:56.4	but we deserve a moment where they are not in control.
1:01.0	Mitchell McKinney is an expert on political communication.
1:07.0	He joined me to talk about the past, present, and future of presidential debates.
1:15.0	Dr. McKinney, we've come to think of debates
1:21.0	as a central part of the presidential campaigns,
1:27.6	but it wasn't always that way.
1:30.0	When did the idea of presidential debates actually begin?
1:37.0	Well, very good question, Diane, and of course, you know, often I'm reminding folks that we have no codified rules, no laws, no regulations
1:46.8	that mandate debates in our election process.
1:50.9	And so it is by tradition and that's why we oftentimes as we get into a
1:56.8	campaign and we wonder well will debates occur and it's simply by the
2:01.2	candidates agreeing to debate.
2:03.6	In 1960, it was the just developing
2:08.1	television technology and the networks.
2:11.4	And of course, there are the three major networks requesting of the candidates. The candidates
	...

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