Are you excited for Fight Night?
I mean, debate night in America?
Well, the people debating might not feel the same.
Let's backtrack. Between August and January,
there were five Republican debates,
but the presumptive GOP nominee,
Donald Trump, didn't attend any of them.
In fact, there should have been more debates in January,
but Nikki Haley refused to join if Donald Trump didn't
participate.
General election debates are different.
They're scheduled by the Commission on Presidential Debates,
who released the dates for these debates last November.
But now the Trump campaign is asking them to move
these dates.
3 presidential debates and one vice presidential debate are scheduled
from back-to-back weeks between September 16th and October 9th.
The general election is November 5th.
The Trump campaign is arguing that by the time these
debates start,
millions will have already voted,
so it's too late. But the Commission pushed back,
saying these dates were chosen carefully after looking at voting
windows in each state.
In fact, September 16th is the earliest televised presidential debate
ever to be scheduled.
Last election cycle, the debates didn't start until September 29th.
Nearly two weeks later, in true debate fashion,
the trash talk has already started.
In February, Trump spoke about Biden to reporters,
saying, quote, if I were him,
I'd want to debate me too.
He's got nothing else to do.
Last month, Biden seemed to reply,
telling Howard Stern in an interview quote,
I don't know when, but I'm happy to debate him.