Former White House chief of staff Ronald Klain believes the speculated presidential debates between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump need to be “different” from previous years.
Klain, who worked in the Biden White House from 2021 to 2023, said that previous debates involving Trump saw the former president not “follow the rules at all” and the moderator losing control of the debate. Klain was likely referencing the first presidential debate in 2020 when Biden and Trump frequently spoke over each other.
“I think there will be debates,” Klain said. “But we need to have debates where the candidates get equal time, where there’s an orderly way of proceeding, where they can be heard, where it’s not a shouting match, where America will compare the two people who are the leading candidates for president.”
Biden is seeking reelection, while Trump, the presumptive presidential nominee of the Republican Party, is seeking another run for the White House, setting up a likely rematch between the two candidates. Over the past week, Biden said he is “happy to debate” the former president.
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Trump has stated that he is ready to debate Biden “ANYWHERE, ANYTIME, ANYPLACE.” The former president did not participate in any of the debates for the Republican primary.
The first presidential debate is scheduled to take place on Sept. 16 at Texas State University. However, it is not clear whether Biden and Trump will take part.
