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.
The unstoppable duo of Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos
Most of the US contingent advances to Saturday at the BMX racing world championships
Security footage appears to show that Alaska man did not raise gun before being killed by police
Yu Darvish extends scoreless innings streak to 25 in Padres' 9
AI, digital technologies inject new impetus to cultural tourism boom
Putin visits Harbin Institute of Technology
Judge says South Carolina can enforce 6
Election 2024: Biden and Trump bypassed the Commission on Presidential Debates
Tyson Fury meets Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed heavyweight title in Saudi Arabia
Lynn Williams breaks NWSL goal
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell working from home after testing positive for COVID