PHOENIX (AP) — The nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, which has planned presidential faceoffs in every election since 1988, has an uncertain future after President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump struck an agreement to meet on their own.
The Biden and Trump campaigns announced a deal Wednesday to meet for debates in June on CNN and September on ABC. Just a day earlier, Frank Fahrenkopf, chair of the Commission on Presidential Debates, had sounded optimistic that the candidates would eventually come around to accepting the commission’s debates.
“There’s no way you can force anyone to debate,” Fahrenkopf said in a virtual meeting of supporters of No Labels, which has continued as an advocacy group after it abandoned plans for a third-party presidential ticket. But he noted candidates have repeatedly toyed with skipping debates or finding alternatives before eventually showing up, though one was canceled in 2020 when Trump refused to appear virtually after he contracted COVID-19.
Adams, Reyna, Turner, Ream are US concerns ahead of Copa America
Kenya's public hospital doctors sign agreement to end national strike after almost 2 months
Missouri's GOP Gov. Mike Parson signs law expanding voucher
Celebrity birthdays for the week of May 26
64 people charged in sexual abuse investigations in Canada, Ontario police say
One Extraordinary Photo: AP photographer’s Pulitzer Prize
Dating coach dishes on his 'five
The government wants to buy their flood
Candace Parker takes new job with Adidas after retiring from WNBA
Trump accepts a VP debate but wants it on Fox News. Harris has already said yes to CBS
How Kim Kardashian's breathtaking silver corset proves the dangerous centuries