PHOENIX (AP) — The nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, which has planned presidential faceoffs in every election since 1988, has an uncertain future after President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump struck an agreement to meet on their own. The Biden and Trump campaigns announced a deal Wednesday to meet for debates in June on CNN and September on ABC. Just a day earlier, Frank Fahrenkopf, chair of the Commission on Presidential Debates, had sounded optimistic that the candidates would eventually come around to accepting the commission’s debates. “There’s no way you can force anyone to debate,” Fahrenkopf said in a virtual meeting of supporters of No Labels, which has continued as an advocacy group after it abandoned plans for a third-party presidential ticket. But he noted candidates have repeatedly toyed with skipping debates or finding alternatives before eventually showing up, though one was canceled in 2020 when Trump refused to appear virtually after he contracted COVID-19. |
World's highest pumped storage power station begins constructionChina's highly anticipated C919 passenger aircraft returns after debut at Singapore Airshow'Dazi culture' increasingly popular among young ChineseCharting global diplomacy: winChina suspends HK extradition, judiciary assistance treaties with Canada, Australia, BritainGlobal oil demand to record historic growth in 2021: OPECSri Lanka receives batch of China's Sinopharm vaccinesChinese, Qatari medical experts hold video conference on fighting COVIDChina urges U.S. to stop COVIDThird CIIE to create new opportunities for common development