Lara Trump, co-chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC) and daughter-in-law of presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, spoke about the agreement between President Joe Biden and Trump to participate in two debates — one on June 27, the second on September 10.
Biden released a video challenging Trump to the two debates, which Trump swiftly accepted. The resulting debates will be broadcast — the first one, at least, without a live audience — on CNN and ABC News. (CNN anchors Dana Bash and Jake Tapper will host the first debate; and ABC News’ Linsey Davis and David Muir will moderate the second.)
Ms. Trump claimed on Newsmax that her father-in-law, in answering Biden, “called his bluff.” She added: “They thought there was going to be a chance that Donald Trump would say, ‘okay, well here are all the things that I need, if we’re gonna do this, because Joe Biden obviously has given himself every possible advantage here.”
Ms. Trump emphasized her belief that holding a debate without a live audience was a clear Biden win, asserting: “We know that any audience is going to be cheering on Donald Trump.”
Lara Trump on Biden agreeing to debate Trump: Trump called his bluff pic.twitter.com/19hcRLfXPU
— Acyn (@Acyn) May 16, 2024
Note: Many media outlets pronounced Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential debates against Trump, which Biden himself claimed in his challenge, saying “Trump lost two debates to me in 2020.”
Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020. Since then, he hasn’t shown up for a debate.
Now he’s acting like he wants to debate me again.
Well, make my day, pal. pic.twitter.com/AkPmvs2q4u
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 15, 2024
The BBC reported in September 2020 that “on the basis of instant polls and betting markets,” the winner was Joe Biden, “if only because his main goal was to prove to Americans that he could hold up under pressure, that he had not lost a step due to his advancing age. He had to show he could take a pie to the face, metaphorically speaking, and keep his cool.”
Another Biden advantage Lara Trump may be referring to is the controlled environment of the 2024 debates. During the 2020 debates, Trump often interrupted Biden during his designated response time, a tactic Trump also used against his 2016 debate opponent Hillary Clinton. In the upcoming 2024 debates, when a candidate is not speaking, his microphone will be turned off.