Trump accepts Biden's challenge for presidential debate in June

[Progressive Pessimist]

I have full confidence in Biden. Sure, he isn't his 2012 self, but Trump has always sucked at debates. It will also finally put Trump in the spotlight of having to commit to issues and probably garner some ad/campaign material. And Biden may finally get an audience he needs to sell his accomplishments and draw a contrast to Trump. This race needs to be shaken up somehow even as debates likely won't matter by November.

I think even the timing can benefit Biden, this could possibly happen after Trump gets his verdict in the New York case and around the time the Supreme Court will release some surely controversial rulings.

This would help Biden.
The landmine will be Israel, trought.

In a way, yes. Although it finally forces Trump to take a position on the matter.

[wbrocks67]

I think Biden's team's view of this is that while they could definitely be doing better in polls, this race is going to be the longest of all time and people really need to realize sooner than later that this is the matchup whether they like it or not, so we might as well get on with this and start framing it around real life, and the debate forces Trump to be in the spotlight and to answer (or not answer) questions

In the end, the debate just solidifies the matchup and makes it real for most voters, especially the stakes. I think the Biden teams frustration up to this point is that there are some voters who are not tuned in at all and/or not taking it seriously enough

[Open Source Intelligence]

In the end, the debate just solidifies the matchup and makes it real for most voters.

Yeah, how sh*t that's going to be. I've got the dumbass I hate and helped cause me to leave the Republican Party and the incumbent that's been a complete f#cking failure so much so that he doesn't have the balls to stand on his record and instead like a piece of sh*t coward constantly points at his opponent. Meanwhile we've got idiots whose reality is they're living a South Park episode passionately arguing about whether to vote for the douchebag or the turd.

"God Bless America!"

[All Along The Watchtower]

It's kind of ridiculous to me that an incumbent President running for reelection is focusing not on his term of office at all but instead his opponent that was President preceding him, but that seems to be the entire gameplan.

The incumbent President and his party (among many others) believe in their bones that his opponent and predecessor is an existential threat to American democracy who shouldn't even be eligible to run again.  After all, he interrupted the peaceful transfer of power in an attempted self-coup, culminating in his incitement of violence by his supporters  on members of Congress and his own Vice President. Of course that would be their focus!

Oh, and it goes without saying that this is personal for the incumbent President.

[Del Tachi]

I think what this shows is exactly how risk-averse Biden's campaign is.  Having fewer, earlier debates is fundamentally about limiting Biden's exposure to unscripted moments.  A candidate who is down in the polls should want to debate more, not less.

[Open Source Intelligence]

It's kind of ridiculous to me that an incumbent President running for reelection is focusing not on his term of office at all but instead his opponent that was President preceding him, but that seems to be the entire gameplan.

The incumbent President and his party (among many others) believe in their bones that his opponent and predecessor is an existential threat to American democracy who shouldn't even be eligible to run again. After all, he interrupted the peaceful transfer of power in an attempted self-coup, culminating in his incitement of violence by his supporters on members of Congress and his own Vice President. Of course that would be their focus.

That message is clearly not resonating with voters that were not already dyed-in-the-wool voting Democrat, whether the candidate be Donald Trump or Mitt Romney.