Biden trolls Trump as they agree to debate in June

• President Joe Biden and Donald Trump have agreed to debate in June.

• Biden also trolled the former president.

• The president's campaign is selling a T-shirt that pokes fun at Trump's Manhattan criminal trial.

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump agreed Wednesday to an unprecedentedly early June presidential debate. They also agreed to a debate in September.

The two candidates quickly accepted CNN's offer to attend a June 27 debate at the news network's Atlanta studios, making it the earliest televised, major presidential debate in history. There will be no audience, an occurrence that hasn't happened for decades. Debate moderators were not immediately announced.

The September debate will be hosted by ABC on September 10.

Unlike recent presidential debates, CNN's June event is set to air exclusively on the network's platforms. Though viewers will be able to watch it on CNN.com without a cable subscription, there's no indication that the live debate will be aired on competing networks. Sixteen networks aired live coverage of the first 2020 presidential debate, which an estimated 73.1 million people tuned in to, according to Nielsen data.

Presidential debates are traditionally one of the most-viewed television events of the year — a rare exception to the dominance that sporting events hold on the live TV calendar. It's unclear how ratings will be affected if only CNN airs the debate.

Biden's campaign on Wednesday proposed two debates without input from the Commission on Presidential Debates, the traditional nonpartisan organization that has scheduled these debates for decades. Trump's campaign accepted Biden's offer but countered that the pair should face off more than twice. The former president's team proposed four debates, floating potential dates in July and August.

Both sides agreed to hold the traditional, single vice presidential debate as well.

Biden sells merchandise to troll Trump

Biden's reelection team started selling a "Free on Wednesdays" shirt to tout their debate proposal before Trump accepted the June date. The shirt is a not-so-subtle reference to Trump's ongoing Manhattan criminal trial. Trump is in court most of the week and appears to have fallen asleep multiple times during the trial.

Justice Juan Merchan has scheduled breaks in the proceedings on Wednesdays.

"Trump's acting like he wants to debate the President," the item's description reads. "We hear he's free on Wednesdays. Let's do it!"

The shirt costs $32 and is the latest example of campaigns trying to make money from merchandise that plays on short-lived trends. Nontraditional merchandise can be lucrative for campaigns; Trump's 2020 reelection campaign made more than $450,000 from plastic-straw sales.

While accepting Biden's invitation to debate, Trump said the pair should meet more than twice. Traditionally, presidential candidates square off three times, including a town-hall-style debate.

"I would strongly recommend more than two debates and, for excitement purposes, a very large venue, although Biden is supposedly afraid of crowds - That's only because he doesn't get them," Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social-media platform. "Just tell me when, I'll be there. 'Let's get ready to Rumble!!!'"

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the best-positioned third-party challenger, is unlikely to join Trump and Biden next month. Third-party presidential candidates have historically struggled to make the stage since the debate commission began imposing a polling threshold in 2000. CNN is also requiring all participants to have qualified to be on the ballot in enough states to win 270 Electoral College votes. Kennedy is still far from that mark.

This is the biggest shakeup to presidential debates in decades

The Commission on Presidential Debates has chosen the venues and moderators for decades. But in recent years, Republicans and Democrats have become critical of the organization, with the Republican National Committee withdrawing from the commission in 2022. Trump's campaign had blasted the group for not scheduling a debate until September.

Biden's campaign has largely agreed with this critique. In a letter to the commission, Jen O'Malley Dillon, Biden's 2024 campaign chair, went even further, criticizing the organization for straying away from what presidential debates should be.

"The Commission's model of building huge spectacles with large audiences at great expense simply isn't necessary or conducive to good debates," O'Malley Dillon wrote. "The debates should be conducted for the benefit of the American voters, watching on television and at home — not as entertainment for an in-person audience with raucous or disruptive partisans and donors, who consume valuable debate time with noisy spectacles of approval or jeering."

Read the original article on Business Insider