Pressure builds on Biden to debate Trump: The ex-president’s campaign is calling for the primetime showdowns to be earlier as five networks call for them to take the stage and bring them millions of viewers

The pressure is building on President Joe Biden agreeing to debate Donald Trump, as the former president called for previous engagements, and the TV networks are urging the candidates to take the stage.

“While the Commission on Presidential Debates has already announced three presidential debates and one vice presidential debate to take place later this year, we are in favor of those debates beginning much earlier,” Trump co-campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita sent Thursday to the Commission on Presidential Debates.

In the letter, obtained by Fox Newsnote the co-leaders that “voting is starting earlier and earlier, and as we saw in 2020, tens of thousands of Americans had already voted in the first debate.”

But Trump is also expected to spend much of the fall in court, fighting legal charges in state court in Georgia and federal court in Florida.

There is a detailed plan for three presidential debates and one vice presidential one already in place from the Commission on Presidential Debates, a nonpartisan organization that includes leaders from both sides of the political aisle.

They have the debates scheduled for 16 September, 1 October and 9 October.

“By the date of the first proposed debate, September 16, 2024, over 1 million Americans will likely have voted,” Wiles and LaCivita wrote. “By the date of the second proposed debate, October 1, 2024, the number of Americans likely to have cast a ballot will be over 3 million, a 225% increase.”

The Trump letter comes as the major television news networks are preparing a joint letter to be sent to Biden and Trump asking them to participate in the debates.

The letter – from ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and Fox News – is not yet final New York Times reported, and the networks also want co-signatories from other leading national news organizations, including newspapers.

“We, the undersigned national news organizations, call on the presumptive presidential candidates to publicly commit to participating in general election debates before the November election,” the letter reads.

“If there’s one thing Americans can agree on in this polarized time, it’s that the stakes in this election are unusually high,” the letter continues.

“There is simply no substitute for the candidates discussing with each other, and before the American people, their visions for the nation’s future.”

Whether Biden and Trump will meet this fall on the debate stage remains a mystery.

Biden has not committed to a debate but appeared open to it, telling reporters who asked him about Trump’s challenge: ‘It depends on his behavior.’

He has also joked with Trump: ‘If I were him, I would also like to debate myself. He has nothing else to do.’

His team has expressed concern about the commission’s lack of enforcement of the rules in the 2020 debate, particularly when it came to Trump.

In their first debate, hosted by Fox News, Trump repeatedly interrupted Biden during Biden’s allotted speaking time and did not stop — even when moderator Chris Wallace urged him to.

At one point, Biden told Trump, ‘Will you shut up, man?’

Donald Trump’s team has asked the Commission on Presidential Debates to move up the schedule for the presidential debate

Joe Biden’s team has raised concerns about the commission’s lack of enforcement of the rules in the 2020 debate, particularly when it came to Donald Trump repeatedly interrupting Biden’s speaking time – over the two men at a debate in Cleveland in September 20202

In addition, Biden’s team was outraged by the lack of enforcement of COVID protocols surrounding the first presidential debate, which took place during the height of the pandemic.

Hope Hicks, a top aide to Trump, had tested positive for COVID ahead of the debate. Trump announced after the debate that he was positive. The second debate was canceled as it was planned that Trump would still be considered contagious.

Trump has previously criticized the debate commission as biased against him and had at one point said he would not debate under their rules.

He has spoken out against the moderators the commission chose, complained about a technical problem with his microphone during one of the 2016 debates, and refused to participate in the second 2020 debate virtually because he was still contagious from COVID, which resulted in its cancellation.

But on social media last month, Trump said he would debate Biden “anytime, anywhere, anywhere.”

“It is important for the good of our country that Joe Biden and I debate issues so important to the American people and the American people,” Trump wrote. ‘That’s why I encourage debates, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE, ANYWHERE!’

It was a change of heart from the former president who refused to participate in any of the Republican presidential debates.

In the 2020 contest, Biden and Trump debated twice.

More than 73 million people watched the two men during their first debate — which was less than the 84 million who watched Trump take on Hillary Clinton in 2016.

But presidential debates are typically among the most-watched telecasts of the year, beating out events like the Academy Awards.

Hosted by one television network, the event is typically simulcast on all major cable and broadcast networks.

If none take place, this year’s election could be the first in 50 years without a debate between the general election candidates.