US President Joe Biden has said he is willing to debate his presumptive Republican opponent Donald Trump later this autumn – his most definitive comment yet on the issue.
Mr Trump said he was ready, though he questioned Mr Biden’s willingness.
Mr Biden’s comment came during an interview with the Sirius XM radio host Howard Stern, who asked him whether he would participate in debates against Mr Trump.
“I am, somewhere. I don’t know when,” Mr Biden said.
“But I’m happy to debate him.”
So far, Mr Biden’s re-election campaign had declined to commit to participating in the debates, a hallmark of every general election presidential campaign since 1976.
Mr Biden himself had also been vague, saying in March that whether he debated Mr Trump “depends on his behaviour”.
The two men debated twice during the 2020 general election – a campaign year constrained significantly by Covid-19 restrictions – and Mr Biden was notably irritated by Mr Trump’s antics in the chaotic first debate that year.
“Will you shut up?” Mr Biden said to Mr Trump at one point during the first debate.
Trump campaign officials have said for some time that the former president is prepared to debate Mr Biden anytime, and Chris LaCivita, Trump campaign senior adviser, quickly responded to Mr Biden’s remarks on the social media site X, saying: “OK let’s set it up!”
Later on Friday, Mr Trump reacted to Mr Biden’s new public willingness to debate by saying “everyone knows he doesn’t really mean it” but suggested either next Monday evening, Tuesday evening or Wednesday evening, when Mr Trump will be campaigning in Michigan.
The former president is suggesting evenings because he is otherwise attending proceedings for his hush money criminal trial in New York.
Mr Trump is required to be in court every day but Wednesdays.
In a statement on his own social media platform, Mr Trump also challenged Mr Biden to debating at the Manhattan courthouse on Friday night, since both men were in New York at the same time.
Mr Biden has since returned to Washington.
Yet Friday is also Melania Trump’s birthday, and the former president had already said earlier in the day that he was flying back to Florida to spend the day with his wife once his trial had wrapped for the day.
As Mr Trump left court for the day in New York on Friday afternoon, he repeated his challenge and said: “We’re ready. Just tell me where. I will do it at the White House. That would be very comfortable, actually.”
Mr Trump did not participate in any of the Republican primary debates this cycle.
The Commission on Presidential Debates has already announced the dates and locations for the three general election debates between the presidential candidates: September 16 in San Marcos, Texas; October 1 in Petersburg, Virginia; and October 9 in Salt Lake City.
The lone vice presidential debate is slated for September 25 in Easton, Pennsylvania.
A dozen news organisations, including The Associated Press, wrote to the Biden and Trump campaigns earlier this month to urge both candidates to participate in the debates.
Mr Biden engages in relatively fewer press interviews than his predecessors, and his aides tend to choose outlets and media avenues outside the traditional press corps that covers the president in Washington.
His interview with Stern on Friday, which ran well over an hour, took on an informal and introspective tone and spanned topics that included Mr Biden’s upbringing, family, and his favourite president (Thomas Jefferson, Mr Biden said).
The interview also occurred the day after The New York Times issued a statement criticising Mr Biden for shunning formal interviews and conducting fewer news conferences than his predecessors.
The newspaper said that its publisher, AG Sulzberger, has urged senior Biden officials to agree to presidential interviews not just with the Times but with other news outlets.
Still, the timing of the Stern interview was coincidental; a person familiar with the plans said the White House has been working with the Sirius XM host for weeks to arrange the conversation.
Less the “shock jock” of old, Stern still commands a loyal audience.
And he has become known for his conversational interviewing skills.
He can turn talks with celebrities into revealing discussions, often by asking things others might be afraid to, but not in confrontational ways.