Former President Donald Trump, while being interviewed on Dan Bongino’s radio show, said that he wants to debate President Joe Biden right now, even before he receives the official GOP nomination for 2024.
“I’d like to call for, immediately, debates,” Trump said on The Dan Bongino Show. “I’d like to debate him now because we should debate,” continued the former president. “We should debate for the good of the country.”
Biden did not seem as excited about the prospect of being on stage in a debate format with the former president. While speaking with reporters, he was asked about Trump’s comments and whether or not he accepted the challenge to debate the GOP primary frontrunner.
“Immediately?” the president replied while laughing. “Well, I — if I were him, I’d want to debate me too. He’s got nothing else to do.”
REPORTER: “Donald Trump says he’s ready to debate you right now. Do you accept?”
JOE BIDEN: “If I were him, I’d want him to debate me, too. He’s got nothing else to do.”
Who do you think would win in a debate? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/f3IntUZ8un
— Proud Elephant 🇺🇸🦅 (@ProudElephantUS) February 5, 2024
While it is true that the primary season is still underway, most Americans believe that the 2024 presidential election will be a repeat of 2020 as national polls show Trump with a 50-point lead over former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley.
Trump’s willingness to debate Biden comes after not participating in any of the GOP primary debates over the past few months. His campaign believed that his lead in the polls was large enough to make debating unnecessary.
As the general election draws nearer, Trump seems more than willing to debate Biden, his political rival. Trump was asked back in December by radio host Hugh Hewitt about the prospect of debating Biden if both men obtained their party’s nomination.
“Oh, will I look forward to that — how about 10 debates? How about 10,” Trump replied.
Trump also went after Biden for declining an interview request that would be aired during the Super Bowl festivities, something that presidents had been doing since Barack Obama in 2009.
Trump both offered to take his place and said, “He can’t do it, because he can’t talk.”
It is the second consecutive year that Biden has turned down the interview request. The first year some people believed it was due to strained relations between the President and Fox News, but this year’s request was from CBS News, a network that Biden has granted numerous interviews in the past.
