Last week, when it became clear that CNN and ABC had won the first — and perhaps only — presidential debates of the 2024 cycle, CBS turned to the next best option : vice presidential debate. CBS News invites Vice President Kamala Harris to participate in a debate, in studio, on July 23 or August 13, an offer the Biden campaign accepted. “We hope the Trump campaign accepts one of these dates so we can set a full debate schedule for the campaign,” Brian Fallon, Harris’ campaign communications director told reporters. However, a day later, Donald Trump said his campaign had also accepted his yet-to-be-chosen running mate’s invitation to debate — on Fox News.
With each campaign committing to a different debate, it’s unclear how the event will unfold. In announcing his acceptance of Fox’s invitation, Trump suggested that the event would be held at a historically black university, replacing Virginia State University, the site the Commission on Presidential Debates had chosen. plans to hold a presidential debate in October. But that was before the CPD, which had been a Republican target, was sidelined by both campaigns. Biden campaign chairman Jen O’Malley Dillon sent a letter to the CPD last week withdrawing from the organization’s planned debates — citing, among other things, complaints about the CPD’s ability to enforce its rules in 2020 — and in doing so opened the floodgates for individual news networks to put their own spin on the campaigns in hopes of securing a potentially lucrative TV booking. history.
CNN and ABC both acted quickly: In less than two hours, CNN announced that both campaigns had accepted the network’s debate on June 27, and about an hour later, the candidates said they agreed to hold a second debate, moderated by ABC News, on September 10. CNN Jake Tapper And Dana Bash will host the first debate, with ABC David Muir And Linsey Davis tap as moderator for the second time. Having the talent at the center is a big step for the two networks, which both said they would make their debates available for others to simulcast.
Last week’s flurry of events — and the lingering uncertainty surrounding the vice presidential showdown — speaks to the freewheeling nature of all this year’s debates, which for the first time in nearly four decades did not has the non-partisan CPD as an independent regulator. In conversations with people online in recent months, there has been skepticism about whether the public will see any debate in the general election. Last month, five major broadcast and cable news networks—CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox News—highlighted that concern in a letter urging Joe Biden and Trump publicly committed to participating in general election debates before the November election.
The pace of last week’s two presidential debates left some in the television industry wondering whether CNN and ABC would book the debates with the Biden campaign. I understand that there were no formal planning discussions between the Biden campaign and ABC, or between the campaign and CNN, before Wednesday. But since it is unlikely that both campaigns will agree to the CPD’s three planned debates in the fall, some network executives, reading the writing on the wall, are already thinking twice about the contingency plan. CNN, for example, was able to take advantage of the opportunity because they were already discussing internally what a debate or town hall event would look like this time — without an audience, due to CNN’s town hall widely criticized Trump last year — and where it might be held. The network’s new Techwood campus in Atlanta is an ideal location due to its security features and scale. Both CNN and ABC have the right people – veteran debate planners Mark Preston And David Chalian at CNN and Rick Klein at ABC—to make such last-minute moves.
CBS, according to a source familiar with the matter, is not far behind CNN and ABC in its proposal to host a presidential debate. But they came in third, and Biden’s campaign made clear they would only agree to two presidential debates. Inside CBS, people are worried that the network won’t get involved in the presidential race and are hoping that the vice presidential debate will go their way. “There is optimism internally that the network will land a network, but also worry that CBS isn’t there,” a person familiar with the discussions at CBS told me. discussion at CBS told me, while also noting that there is pressure on executives and producers. “These will be important times for ABC and CNN.”
The Biden campaign has suggested that it will not participate in the Fox News debate, as O’Malley Dillon said it would only participate in a vice presidential debate and as the broadcasters have hosted both the 2016 Republican primary debate and the 2020 Democratic primary debate, which will exclude Fox News and MSNBC.
“Despite not hosting a Democratic debate in 2016/2020, Fox News was still able to secure town halls featuring Democratic candidates such as: Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, Julian Castro, Amy Klobuchar And Kirsten Gillibrand,” Fox News wrote in their proposal sent to O’Malley Dillon last Friday, according to a copy of the letter that Vanity fair. The letter also noted that “Fox News Media is reaching out to Virginia State University as a possible location, as CPD has selected the school as the first Black College or University in the institution’s history a Presidential Debate.”
