June 22, 2020 Ms. Dorothy Ridings Mr. Frank Fahrenkopf Mr. Kenneth Wollack Commission on Presidential Debates Washington, DC Dear Co-Chairs Ridings, Fahrenkopf and Wollack: I am writing on behalf of Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for President, regarding the 2020 Presidential Debates. While I know that no formal debate invitation will be issued to Joe Biden or Donald Trump until after the Party Conventions and the CPD’s invitation process, I wanted to set forth our views on how the Commission should proceed with planning for the fall debates. Specifically, I want to address three issues for the Commission’s consideration. First, once formally invited, Vice President Biden will accept and participate in the Commission’s planned Presidential candidates’ debates for September 29, October 15, and October 22; his running mate will participate in the Vice Presidential candidates’ debate set for October 7. We hope that President Trump and Vice President Pence will similarly indicate their willingness to participate. Joe Biden looks forward to facing Donald Trump in a multi-debate series that the American people have come to expect from their leaders; we hope that President Trump would not break that tradition or make excuses for a refusal to participate. Now that Donald Trump is trailing badly in the polls, and is desperate to change the subject from his failed leadership of the country, we are seeing reports that he has his own proposal for debates – after having said, just six months ago, that he might not want to participate at all in planned debates. No one should be fooled: the Trump campaign’s new position is a debate distraction. The Trump position seems to be saying that he will debate if he can pick the moderators: clearly the President, who largely conducts interviews only with favorable news outlets, is afraid of facing questions from a neutral moderator. The Trump campaign proposal for elaborate negotiations is merely an effort to dodge fair, even-handed debates. Our position is straightforward and clear: Joe Biden will accept the Commission’s debates, on the Commission’s dates, under the Commission’s established format and the Commission’s independent choice of moderators. Donald Trump and Mike Pence should do the same. That is what every candidate for President and Vice President have done in modern times, Democrat and Republican alike. That is what the Biden campaign is willing to do. Any “debate proposals” in lieu of that are just an effort to change the subject, avoid debates, or create a distracting “debate about debates.” Second, because we do not want there to be any reason for cancelling the debates, we would like to confirm that the Commission has made plans for debate arrangements if COVID control measures threaten to impact the conduct of the debates as planned. There is no reason why Vice President Biden and President Trump cannot meet for debates with appropriate safety and social distancing measures (set by public health authorities) on the three dates the CPD has identified. Nothing should prevent the conduct of debates between Joe Biden and Donald Trump on these dates; again, we do not want to provide President Trump with any excuses for not debating. Third, we hope that the CPD will adopt a Town Hall format for the second Presidential debate (as it has for every debate cycle since 1992), and that it makes provisions for citizen participation in that debate even if COVID remains a concern. During his primary campaign, Vice President Biden welcomed direct questions from uncommitted voters on a frequent basis, and we think it is time that President Trump faced such questioning himself. We know that voters have many, many questions for the President. Thank you for your consideration of these requests. We look forward to your prompt response. Sincerely, Jen O’Malley Dillon Campaign Manager Biden for President