Set your TiVo. The first 2024 presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump is set for June 27. Americans can tune in to CNN to see the two candidates spar. A second debate, which will air on ABC, is set for September 10.
If it seems like the debates are earlier than normal this year, it’s because they are. Traditionally, these televised events occur after the two parties have had their summer nominating conventions, generally in late September and through October.
The timeline is not the only difference this election cycle. At President Biden’s urging, the two candidates opted not to go through the nonpartisan commission that has organized presidential debates for more than three decades. As The Associated Press noted, the Biden campaign proposed instead that media outlets directly organize the debates.
Why, and how could putting networks and other news outlets in charge of the debates change things? We will examine those questions this week. But, first, a look at the history of presidential debates and the bipartisan commission that has organized them for the last generation-and-a-half.
The History Of Presidential Debates
The United States was nearly two centuries old before it saw its first head-to-head debates between presidential candidates from the two parties. (Republicans held primary debates in 1948. Democrats did the same in 1956.) In 1960, Republican Richard Nixon and Democrat John F. Kennedy met in four debates between late September and late October. These debates were televised and are credited with throwing the close vote in Kennedy’s favor after Nixon visibly sweat under the moderators’ questioning – and the hot stage lights.
While the debates clearly made an impression on voters, the idea did not catch on.
The next head-to-head presidential candidate debates did not happen until 1976 when incumbent Republican Gerald Ford and challenger, Democrat Jimmy Carter, met on the debate stage three times in September and October. 1976 also was the first year there was a vice presidential debate.
There were two presidential debates in 1980 and two, plus a vice presidential debate, in 1984. The 1960 debates were hosted jointly by the country’s leading television networks. The debates held in 1976, 1980, and 1984 were organized by the League of Women Voters.
Then the Commission on Presidential Debates took over.
The History Of The Commission On Presidential Debates
After conducting a review of the 1984 election process, in 1985 the bipartisan National Commission on Elections concluded the country’s two major party organizations, the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the Democratic National Committee (DNC), should sponsor the debates instead of the League of Women Voters.
The RNC and DNC created the Commission on Presidential Debates in 1987 and, according to The New York Times, members from the two parties were in charge of operations while the heads of the RNC and DNC chaired the commission.
The campaign committees tried to work with the League of Women Voters, but things did not go well.
“It has become clear to us that the candidates’ organizations aim to add debates to their list of campaign-trail charades devoid of substance, spontaneity and honest answers to tough questions,” League President Nancy M. Neuman said in an October 3, 1988 press release. “The League has no intention of becoming an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public.”
Most objectionable to the League, the press release said, were conditions in the debate agreement that gave the campaigns unprecedented control over the proceedings. Neuman said it was “outrageous” that the campaigns had demanded that they control the selection of questioners, the composition of the audience, hall access for members of the press, and other issues. “The campaigns’ agreement is a closed-door masterpiece,” Neuman said. “Never in the history of the League of Women Voters have two candidates’ organizations come to us with such stringent, unyielding, and self-serving demands.”
The RNC and DNC dismissed the criticisms. Two days later, Republican Vice Presidential candidate Dan Quayle and Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Lloyd Bentsen met in Omaha, Neb. without the support of the League of Women Voters. The presidential candidates, Republican George H.W. Bush and Democrat Michael Dukakis met on the stage twice that year, also without the League’s support.
Thirty-six years later, things have crumbled again.
Why Are The Candidates Moving Away From The Commission Now?
While The Associated Press gives the Biden campaign most of the credit for changing the way presidential debates are handled this year, the news service also notes “there also was little love lost for the commission from Trump, who objected to technical issues at his first debate with Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 and was upset when a 2020 debate with Biden was canceled after the Republican came down with COVID-19.”
Additionally, the RNC, of which Trump is the de facto leader, already had said it would not work with the commission this year.
Both the Trump and Biden campaigns thought the commission’s proposed schedule came too late in the cycle. Specifically, the Biden campaign noted the debates would not happen until after some Americans begin to vote through early voting initiatives.
“The debates should be conducted for the benefit of the American voters, watching on television and at home — not as entertainment for an in-person audience with raucous or disruptive partisans and donors,” the Biden campaign told the commission.
As The Associated Press noted, President Biden also objected to the debates being held in front of live audiences. Which brings us to the question:
How Different Will The Debates Be This Year?
While all of the debate details are not solidified, there will be at least one major change.
As had been tradition for most of the presidential debates over the prior three decades, in 2020, the two presidential debates were held at universities with audiences present. No college students will be clambering for tickets this year, however. The June 27 CNN debate will be held at 9 p.m. ET in the network’s Atlanta studios. No audience will be present. ABC has not released where its September 10 debate will take place.
Other parts of the debate will look familiar. As in years past, and as would be expected since news outlets are organizing the debate, journalists will be the moderators.
Another constant will be the potential presence of third-party candidates. As The Associated Press reported, the Biden campaign had proposed excluding third-party candidates like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from the debates, but CNN and ABC nixed that idea. Both networks have said any candidate that reaches 15 percent support in four separate national polls of likely or registered voters will be invited to participate. That is the same standard the Commission of Presidential Debates used, though the commission also required that participants to have secured ballot access in enough states sufficient to claim 270 electoral votes.
Other parts of the debate schedule are TBD. It is unclear yet, for example, whether vice presidential candidates will debate as they have during past election cycles.
We do, however, expect that the schedule may be enhanced.
As NBC News reported, “the Trump campaign hasn’t yet announced his running mate or accepted an invitation to a vice presidential debate.” The Biden campaign has said that Vice President Kamala Harris accepted an invitation from CBS for a vice presidential debate over the summer. The campaign and CBS agreed that the debate could be held on July 23 or August 13. The July date would come just one week after the Republican convention, NBC noted.
Additionally, in a memo sent last week by senior campaign advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles to Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon, the Trump campaign challenged the sitting president to an additional two debates in order to “allow voters to have maximum exposure to the records and future visions of each candidate.” Trump himself followed up the memo with a post on social media saying he wanted at least three debates.
The Biden campaign dismissed that idea — and questioned whether the former commander-in-chief will even show up to the two contests that already are scheduled. According to The Associated Press, O’Malley Dillon responded with a statement accusing Trump of having “a long history of playing games with debates: complaining about the rules, breaking those rules, pulling out at the last minute, or not showing up at all.”
“No more games. No more chaos, no more debate about debates,” O’Malley Dillon said. “We’ll see Donald Trump on June 27th in Atlanta – if he shows up.”
There is no contract binding the two men running for president to debate at all, so it’s entirely possible that one or both of the 2024 presidential debates will end up being canceled. But what else would you expect in this election cycle?