Former President Donald Trump on Friday challenged President Joe Biden to a debate, saying he’s open to everything, including a courthouse debate.
Trump skipped out of all the GOP candidate debates earlier this year, but the 77-year-old made it clear he wants to debate Biden ahead of the November 2024 presidential election.
“Crooked Joe Biden just announced that he’s willing to debate! Everyone knows he doesn’t really mean it, but in case he does, I say, ANYWHERE, ANYTIME, ANYPLACE, an old expression used by Fighters,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “I suggest Monday Evening, Tuesday Evening, or Wednesday Evening at my Rally in Michigan, a State that he is in the process of destroying with his E.V. Mandate.”
Biden said Friday during an interview with radio host Howard Stern that he is willing to debate Trump.
“I am, somewhere, I don’t know when, but I am happy to debate him,” Biden said in the interview.
If those dates don’t work, Trump offered to do it at the New York courthouse where he is on trial for allegedly falsifying business records to cover up hush-money payments to a former Playboy Playmate and an adult film actress ahead of the 2016 election.
“In the alternative, he’s in New York City today, although probably doesn’t know it, and so am I, stuck in one of the many Court cases that he instigated as ELECTION INTERFERENCE AGAINST A POLITICAL OPPONENT – A CONTINUING WITCH HUNT! It’s the only way he thinks he can win,” Trump wrote. “In fact, let’s do the Debate at the Courthouse tonight – on National Television, I’ll wait around!”
Trump has previously said that although he’s not happy about it, he’s willing to campaign from the courthouse. Last November, he said campaigning from the courthouse was “very doable.” More recently, he has used the New York criminal trial to raise campaign funds, sometimes giving short campaign-style speeches at news conferences as he enters or leaves the courthouse.
Trump is set to spend four days a week in the New York courtroom for the next several weeks. Trump pleaded not guilty in April 2023 to 34 felony counts related to charges he paid adult film actress Stormy Daniels through a lawyer ahead of the 2016 presidential election and covered it up as a legal expense before being elected president.
Trump has said the legal challenges amount to a politically charged witch hunt designed to interfere with his bid to retake the White House.
Polling shows that Trump supporters are loyal and unlikely to change their opinion about the 77-year-old presidential candidate even if he were to be convicted.
Biden has largely avoided any comment on Trump’s trials.
