OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former President Donald Trump has agreed to a new debate format for an upcoming showdown with President Joe Biden.
Normally, the 45th president prefers to stand during his debates, but he has agreed to sit at a table with Biden after the 81-year-old commander-in-chief’s campaign requested it, the New York Post reported.
“I hear now we’re sitting at tables. I don’t want to sit at a table,” Trump told John Catsimatidis and Rita Cosby during an appearance on the “Cats & Cosby Show” on WABC 770 AM.
“I said, ‘No, let’s stand.’ But they want to sit at a table,” Trump said. “So we’ll be sitting at a table as opposed to doing it the way you should be, in my opinion, in a debate.”
The presumptive GOP presidential nominee went on to explain that his personal preference would be to “walk out to a podium” and “stand for an hour and a half or two hours.”
“But they have [Biden] sitting at a table, so that’s not so good,” Trump said, calling the seated debate format “one of the many” requests the Biden campaign insisted on, likely because Biden’s people are well aware of his deteriorating mental and physical health.
“But I agree to their requests because I want to debate him,” the former president told Catsimatidis and Cosby, adding that at some point, he will press Biden on his chaotic and deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. “If [Biden] gets through the debate, they’ll say it was brilliant,” Trump noted further.
The Trump and Biden campaigns have scheduled two debates, one hosted by CNN on June 27 and another with ABC News on Sept. 10.It’s unclear whether the seated format will be used for both debates. According to the Biden campaign’s request, there will be no live audience at either forum.
Another survey has found that Trump is maintaining his lead in most of the critical swing states heading into the summer months of his campaign ahead of his likely GOP nomination during the Republican Party’s July convention in Milwaukee.
A Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll of registered voters, conducted from May 7th to 13th, found that Trump holds a four-point lead over Biden across all swing states. The former president leads by five points in Arizona, seven points in North Carolina, three points in Georgia, two points in Pennsylvania, and one point in Wisconsin.
Trump and Biden are tied in Nevada, while Biden holds a narrow one-point lead over Trump in Michigan. The poll of 4,962 registered swing state voters has a margin of error of one point. Although Trump leads in most swing states, the race has tightened since last month, when he had stronger advantages, particularly in Wisconsin and Georgia, the Daily Wire noted.
The survey also revealed a relatively pessimistic outlook on the economy, with 55 percent of respondents stating that the economy in their state is headed in the wrong direction, compared to 45 percent who believe it is moving in the right direction.
The poll findings come as Trump and the Republican National Committee outpaced Biden and the Democratic National Committee in fundraising last month. That marked a reversal of the trend seen in March when Biden and the Democrats outraised Trump and the Republicans.
A recent ABC News/Ipsos poll found that voters trust Trump more than Biden to handle the economy, immigration, and crime, which are expected to be key issues in the presidential election. Additionally, a Harvard Harris poll revealed that a larger share of voters approve of Trump’s performance in office compared to Biden’s.
Voters also seem to support Trump’s key promises on immigration. A recent survey found that 61 percent of Independents believe that illegal immigrants should be deported, which is a central element of Trump’s 2024 immigration agenda.
