WASHINGTON — President Biden said Friday he will face off with former President Donald Trump on the debate stage ahead of their rematch on Nov. 5 — ending speculation after the 81-year-old president said last month that it “depends on his behavior.”
“I am somewhere, I don’t know when, but I am happy to debate him,” Biden told satellite radio host Howard Stern in a rare, wide-ranging interview lasting more than one hour.
Trump 2024 campaign adviser Chris LaCivita was quick to respond to Biden’s remarks, posting on X: “Let’s set it up!”
Trump’s national spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told The Post that the former president will “personally address” the news “during the next court break,” as he’s currently on trial for the “hush money” case in New York City.
The Trump campaign had long asked Biden to commit to debates in the 2024 cycle.
Top Trump advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita sent a letter to the Commission for Presidential Debates earlier in April stating Trump would be ready for a head-to-head debate “anytime, anyplace, and anywhere,” and that he would be ready “now.”
The CPD has tentatively scheduled three showdowns ahead of the general election: Sept. 16 in San Marcos, Texas, Oct. 1 in Petersburg, Va., and Oct. 9 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Wiles and LaCivita argued in the letter the dates were too far away and too infrequent, and called on the commission to schedule them sooner for voters to have more opportunity to see them face off.
“Voting is beginning earlier and earlier, and as we saw in 2020, tens of millions of Americans had already voted by the time of the first debate. Specific to the Commission’s proposed 2024 calendar, it simply comes too late,” read the letter.
Neither Trump nor Biden have participated in any primary debates this cycle, despite being called upon by their former primary competitors.
Up till now, Biden had also dodged committing to any debates with Trump.
“Well, if I were him, I’d want to debate me too,” Biden told reporters in February. “He’s got nothing else to do.”
On March 8, the president indicated as he left the White House that the possibility of a debate “depends on his [Trump’s] behavior.”
The candidates debated twice during the 2020 campaign, with then-President Trump hammering the Democrat on policy and alleging that he was corrupt.
Polls show broad bipartisan concern about whether Biden is too old to hold office.
He already is the oldest-ever president and would be 86 if he completes a full second term.
Trump, 77, leads Biden in most national and swing-state polls, but surveys show a criminal conviction could diminish his support — as rising inflation and interest rates, as well as record-breaking illegal immigration, are among Biden’s worst-polling liabilities.
This is a developing story; refresh the page for more.