How Biden came around to debating Trump: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the campaign trail, the White House and Capitol Hill.

In today’s edition, White House correspondent Mike Memoli reports on how Joe Biden came around to challenging Donald Trump to two debates. Plus, chief political analyst Chuck Todd breaks down which presidential candidate will be a bigger drag on their party this fall.

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How Biden came around to debating Trump

By Mike Memoli

For weeks, former President Donald Trump and his team have been trying to goad President Joe Biden into a debate over debates.

In the end, it just took a simple memo and a couple phone calls to settle the matter quickly, as the two presumptive major party presidential nominees agreed Wednesday to debates in June and September.

The Biden team’s surprise volley to try to settle the matter served two of its primary objectives at this stage of the campaign: to accelerate making the 2024 race into a binary choice, and to seize a rare opportunity to set the agenda in an otherwise Trump-driven national media environment.

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Wall-to-wall coverage of Trump’s hush money trial has made it all but impossible for the president’s message to break through of late. But advisers say it has forced them to focus their efforts on making a bigger impact on the rare off days in the New York proceedings.

On Wednesday, with no Trump trial, the debate topic presented a ripe target guaranteed to land the president back in the headlines — and to drive the discussion.

It was Howard Stern of all people who first got