Trump agrees to another major request by Biden campaign for upcoming face off
Ahead of the first debate with incumbent President Joe Biden, GOP leader Donald Trump announced that he consented to “sit at a table” despite his strong desire to stand.
Appearing on the “Cats & Cosby Show” on WABC 770 AM, the former US president said the seated format was proposed by the 81-year-old Commander-in-Chief.
“I hear now we’re sitting at tables. I don’t want to sit at a table,” Trump said.
“I said, ‘No, let’s stand.’ But they want to sit at a table,” the 77-year-old former president said. “So we’ll be sitting at a table as opposed to doing it the way you should be, in my opinion, in a debate.”
“But they have [Biden] sitting at a table, so that’s not so good,” Trump remarked, noting that the seated debate format was “one of many” requests made by the Biden re-election campaign.
Trump further said that he agreed to the condition because “I want to debate him”, adding that he plans to question Biden about the chaotic US exit from Afghanistan in 2021.
“If [Biden] gets through the debate, they’ll say it was brilliant,” he added.
Trump’s latest statement comes after he declared that he will demand Biden to go through a drug test before appearing for a debate, stressing that he doesn’t want Biden “coming in like the State of the Union. He was high as a kite.”
Meanwhile, Biden campaign rejected Trump’s request for more debates, stating that “there will be no games” and “the debate about debates is over.”
Will ‘sit at a table’ format apply to both debates?
The two upcoming debates between Biden and Trump will take place on June 27 and September 10. While the first debate will be hosted by CNN, another will be conducted by ABC News. It is uncertain whether the sitting format will apply to both debates.
As requested by the Biden campaign, neither forum will have a live audience to witness the head-to-head debate.
Both Biden and Trump campaigns have expressed a readiness to take part in a vice-presidential debate, but the specifics of such an event have not been determined.
Biden wants the vice-presidential debate to appear on CBS, while Trump prefers Fox News to host the event.