Democratic Senators: Maybe Biden Should Skip Debates

High-ranking Dick Durbin says Biden should 'think twice' before getting on stage with Trump
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 8, 2024 11:48 AM CST
Democratic Senators: Maybe Biden Should Skip Debates
President Biden speaks in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, on Friday.   (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Donald Trump hasn't attended a single GOP primary debate this election season. At least two Democratic senators suggest President Biden should return the favor when it comes to debates for the general election. "I would think twice about it," Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois tells the Hill of Biden's plans to debate Trump. "It's just an opportunity for (Trump) to display his extremism," added Durbin, the second-highest ranking Democratic senator. Fellow Democrat Chris Coons of Delaware made a similar point, asserting that Trump failed to abide by the rules of decorum in one 2020 debate he attended.

"The fact that former President Trump was unable to conduct himself in just a minimally reasonable way" during that debate, "and that he's refusing to debate any of his primary opponents this time would make a pretty strong case for not dignifying him as a candidate by sharing a debate stage," said Coons. However, longtime party strategist James Carville said it would be too risky for Biden to skip all debates because it "would certainly accentuate the age problem," referring to complaints the 81-year-old Biden is too old for a second term. Biden should at least agree to one debate, he added.

As for Trump, he recently told conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt that he's game for 10 debates against Biden. The nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates so far has scheduled three debates between the eventual presidential candidates, starting on Sept. 16, though it's not clear if Trump would participate in any organized by the commission, reports Politico. Republicans accuse the group of bias. The commission is setting a threshold of 15% in the polls to qualify for the stage, which is bad news for independent candidates such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Meanwhile, CNN hosts a GOP debate Wednesday, with Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis expected to be the only participants, per the New York Times. (More Election 2024 stories.)

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