Biden says he’s ‘happy’ to debate Trump; Trump responds ‘Anytime, anywhere, any place’

President Joe Biden on Friday said he will participate in televised debates with his likely opponent, former president Donald Trump, before the November 5 presidential election.

Biden ended speculation about whether or not he would debate Trump during an hour-long, wide-ranging interview with Sirius-XM radio host Howard Stern.

“I am, somewhere,” he said, in response to a question about whether he was going to debate Trump, adding a second later that he did not know when such debates would take place. The nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates has scheduled three sessions for September 16, October 1 and October 9 this year.

“I’m happy to debate him,” he added.

Stern said that if he were Biden, he would mention Trump’s phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger after the 2020 election. During that phone call, Trump famously said he wanted Raffensperger to “find” him votes to overturn the democratic result in Georgia.

“I would repeat over and over again, ‘Excuse me, please find me 11,000 votes so that I can win the election,’” Stern said. “I would just repeat that over and over again. And then I'd say to the audience, ‘What are we debating?’”

Biden’s announcement of a willingness to debate his twice-impeached predecessor comes after he previously refused to commit to doing so. He did say that he would consider it, based on Trump’s behavior.

During the 2020 election cycle, Trump spent the entirety of his first debate with Biden shouting, interrupting and berating the then-former vice president to the point that Biden replied: “Will you shut up, man?”

At the time, Trump had already tested positive for Covid-19, but did not inform debate organisers.

Following that first debate, Trump backed out of