2024 United States presidential debates

The 2024 United States presidential debates are a series of debates between major candidates of the 2024 United States presidential election. The first general election debate, sponsored by CNN, was attended by former presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden and Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump and was held on June 27, 2024. The second debate, which will be sponsored by ABC, is scheduled to be held on September 10, 2024.

Four general election debates sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) were originally scheduled to be held between September 16 and October 9, 2024. Both Biden and Trump were against the CPD's debate format and schedule. In May 2024, both campaigns agreed to bypass the CPD and hold the alternative debates, canceling the CPD debates. Biden performed poorly during the first debate, with many commentators and Democrats calling for him to drop out of the race; the debate performance ultimately led to a series of events that resulted in Biden canceling his bid for re-election on July 21. His withdrawal lead to doubts over the September 10 debate; in the wake of Biden's drop out, Trump suggested on Truth Social that the September 10 ABC debate should instead be held by Fox News.

Commission on Presidential Debates
In April 2022, the Republican National Committee (RNC) voted unanimously to withdraw from the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD); committee chair Ronna McDaniel called the organization "biased" and stated that they would find "newer, better debate platforms" for future Republican nominees. This announcement came after years of tension between the organizations, including a threat made earlier in the year by the RNC to change its rules to prohibit nominees from participating in CPD debates. In response, the commission stated that "[its] plans for 2024 will be based on fairness, neutrality and a firm commitment to help the American public learn about the candidates and the issues".

Former president Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, did not attend any primary debates, deeming them unnecessary and detrimental to his campaign. He has previously accused the CPD of unfair treatment in the 2016 and 2020 debates. Despite this, Trump told Fox News host Bret Baier in a June 2023 interview that he was interested in debating incumbent president Joe Biden should he become the Democratic nominee. At that time, Biden had not committed to attending the debate either, as his campaign was also in conflict with the commission for failing to enforce its rules against Trump, though in April 2024 he confirmed he planned to debate Trump.

Biden and Trump became the presumptive nominees of their respective parties in March 2024, setting up the first presidential rematch since 1956. On April 14, 2024, a number of major news organizations signed an open letter to the nominees urging them to attend the debates, arguing for its "rich tradition in our American democracy" and that the "exceptionally high" stakes require debates to be held. Signatories include ABC News, CBS News, CNN, NBC News, and Fox News, among others.

If either major party nominee chooses not to attend a general election debate, it would be the first since 2020, when President Trump refused to attend the second debate with Biden because it would have been virtual rather than in person following Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis. It previously occurred in 1980, when President Jimmy Carter refused to attend the first debate with Ronald Reagan due to the presence of independent candidate John B. Anderson.

Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, campaign managers for Trump, had pushed for more debates to be held by the CPD, in addition to holding them earlier than the planned September date, though the commission refused to accede. Throughout his 2024 campaign, Trump confirmed his intention to cooperate with the CPD repeatedly and challenged Biden to debate "anywhere, anytime, anyplace".

The CPD announced the schedule for its four debates on November 20, 2023. All debates would have started at 9 p.m. ET and would have run for 90 minutes uninterrupted. In order to qualify for the CPD-sponsored debates, presidential candidates would have needed to meet the following criteria: (vice presidential candidates would have qualified by being the running mate of a qualifying presidential candidate)
 * Be constitutionally eligible to hold the presidency.
 * Appear on a sufficient number of ballots to have a mathematical possibility of winning a majority vote in the Electoral College.
 * Have a level of support of at least 15% of the national electorate as determined by five national public opinion polling organizations selected by the commission, using the average of those organizations' most recently reported results at the time of determination.

On June 24, 2024, the CPD announced that it was releasing the sites it had selected for its 2024 debates from their contracts, adding that "CPD stands ready to sponsor 2024 debates should circumstances change."

Biden–Trump alternative debates
On May 15, 2024, the Biden campaign announced that it would not participate in the CPD-hosted debates and instead invited Trump to participate in two alternative debates to take place in June and September, each hosted in a TV news studio without an audience. Jen O'Malley Dillon, the Biden campaign manager, laid out three reasons for sidelining the CPD, indicating that the debates were not completed until early voting started, that the debates had become "a spectacle" and that the CPD could not "enforce its own rules". Frank Fahrenkopf, the head of the CPD, pushed back against the claims in an interview with Politico, indicating that the September 16 debate date was the best date, as the "key date" to secure ballot access for independents is September 6. Fahrenkopf also noted that the general election debates are "not like the primary debates" and that Trump himself had not followed the debate rules during the 2020 general election debate moderated by Chris Wallace. Biden and Trump accepted an offer from CNN to hold the first of these debates on June 27 and from ABC to hold the second on September 10.

Trump indicated the same day that he had accepted a Fox News debate to be hosted on October 2, 2024, though the Biden campaign dismissed the prospect of a third debate. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accused the two candidates of "colluding" to exclude him from televised debates "because they are afraid I would win"; both CNN and ABC had decided on eligibility criteria that were similar to those that had been used by the CPD, with Kennedy not appearing on a sufficient number of state ballots at that time. The Biden campaign had unsuccessfully proposed that third-party candidates be excluded from the debates. A May poll taken by the Harvard Center for American Political Studies/Harris indicated that 71% of the people surveyed were in favor of allowing a third-party candidate to debate. Kennedy's campaign filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, maintaining that neither Biden nor Trump meet the ballot access threshold as they have not been nominated by their parties.

Trump announced on May 17 that he would be willing to hold another debate with Biden that would be hosted by NBC News and Telemundo.

On July 9, Trump challenged Biden to a debate with no moderators that would be done that week, as well as an 18-hole golf match.

Proposed vice presidential debate
A vice presidential debate in July was initially proposed, which would take place after the selection of a vice presidential candidate at the 2024 Republican National Convention. The Biden campaign agreed to a vice presidential debate hosted by CBS News to take place on either July 23 or August 13. The Trump campaign confirmed with Politico that it is aware of the offer, but had not yet made a decision. Trump stated on May 17 he agreed to a vice presidential debate on behalf of his future vice presidential pick. Bret Baier of Fox News stated in an interview with Martha MacCallum held on May 17 that Fox would be willing to host a vice presidential debate on July 23, August 13, or "following both party conventions".

Following the selection of U.S. Senator J. D. Vance as the Republican vice presidential nominee, vice president Kamala Harris had left Vance a voicemail on July 15 to congratulate him on his nomination. They spoke the following day, though terms for the debate are still under discussion. Vance rejected the call for a vice presidential debate, citing concerns over Biden's status as the presumptive Democratic nominee being in doubt following the first presidential debate. Following Biden's withdrawal, doubt has been cast over the vice presidential debate as Harris kicks off her campaign for the presidency, with a running mate being unannounced.

Other proposed debates
On May 7, 2024, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. issued an open letter challenging former President Trump to debate him at the Libertarian National Convention, where both were already scheduled to speak from May 24–25, citing Trump's frequent and vocal claims that he would be willing to debate anywhere and Kennedy's own competitive polling with both major candidates. Trump did not respond to this challenge.

June 27 presidential debate (Atlanta)
The first debate was held on Thursday, June 27, 2024, at 9:00 p.m. EDT in CNN's studios at the Techwood Turner campus in Atlanta, Georgia.

Prelude
In April 2024, ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, and Fox News prepared a letter to the presidential campaigns of Joe Biden and Donald Trump, after concerns that the Biden campaign would fault the Commission on Presidential Debates for failing to enforce its rules against Trump and over uncertainty regarding Trump's presence; Trump did not appear at a scheduled debate in November 2020 and did not appear in debates for the Republican primaries. The five networks issued their statement with the Associated Press, C-SPAN, NewsNation, NPR, PBS NewsHour, USA Today, and Noticias Univision. On May 15, Biden and Trump agreed to debate on June 27, with CNN, and on September 10, with ABC News. The arrangement did not include the Commission on Presidential Debates, a non-profit corporation that had sponsored debates for every presidential election since 1988.

In the months prior to the debate, Trump said Biden is the "worst debater I have ever faced; he can't put two sentences together" and criticized his performance in the latest State of the Union address. However, in the days before the debate, Trump starkly shifted his rhetoric regarding Biden's debating skills in an attempt to increase expectations for Biden, saying "I'm not underestimating him... I assume he's going to be somebody that will be a worthy debater."

Qualifications
Though Trump told Scripps News he would have no objection to independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s appearance in the debate, the Biden campaign wrote in a memo that Kennedy should be excluded. As part of the requirements, the Kennedy campaign needed to garner at least fifteen percent support in four approved polls by June 20 and appear on a sufficient number of ballots to be capable of winning the election; the Kennedy campaign's strategy of delaying appearances on ballots to prevent legal challenges from mounting conflicted with CNN's requirements. On May 29, Kennedy filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that the Biden and Trump campaigns colluded to prevent him from appearing at the debate.

In order to qualify for the June 27 CNN debate, presidential candidates had to meet the following criteria:
 * Be constitutionally eligible to hold the presidency
 * File with the Federal Election Commission
 * Appear on a sufficient number of ballots to have a mathematical possibility of winning a majority vote in the Electoral College
 * Agree to the rules of the debate
 * Have a level of support of at least 15% of the national electorate as determined by four national public opinion polling organizations selected by CNN, with such polls dating between March 13 and June 20, 2024.

Preparations
The Biden campaign hired Ron Klain, Biden's former chief of staff, to assist him in debating Trump; Klain helped Biden during the 2020 presidential debates. White House deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed collected material on policy contrasts with Trump. Biden engaged in preparations at Camp David, arriving there on the night of June 20 and remained there nearly until the debate.

According to political advisor Marc Lotter, Trump "views his rallies as debate prep" and engaged with limited debate preparation. The Trump campaign did not appoint a Biden stand-in for Trump to debate. At a rally in Racine, Wisconsin, Trump suggested Biden would be a formidable opponent, alleging Biden would be on cocaine and that the moderators would assist him.

Format
The first debate was available on multiple platforms, including CNN, as well as "CNN International, CNN en Español, CNN Max and CNN.com" and was simulcast on CBS News, ABC News, Fox News, NewsNation, PBS, C-SPAN, MSNBC and NBC, as well as The Washington Posts website, and The New York Timess website. In contrast to previous debates, CNN decided that most reporters covering the event would not be allowed into the studio while the debate was occurring and would need to watch footage from McCamish Pavilion. The move was criticized by the White House Correspondents' Association, with its president Kelly O'Donnell stating that the lack of press access "diminishes a core principle of presidential coverage".

The debate ran for 90 minutes, with no audience members present. Trump's and Biden's microphones were only turned on when it was their turn to speak. The new rule was in response to the events of the September 29, 2020, presidential debate. Debate rules written by CNN allocated two minutes for answering the question posed by the moderators, Dana Bash and Jake Tapper, and one minute for rebuttals and responses to the rebuttals. The primary issues of the debate were immigration, the economy and inflation, abortion, foreign policy and the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, legal issues of the participants, Social Security, the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and the participants' ages.

Debate
The moderators asked 20 questions, excluding the closing, during the debate. Four questions centered on the economy, four on democracy, three on foreign policy, two on immigration, two on abortion, and one each for climate change, age, opioids, race, and tax reform. Biden walked with stiff, short strides as he was introduced onto the stage. Moderator Jake Tapper began the debate with inflation figures. Biden spoke in a hoarse, rapid whisper, attributing the economy to Trump's presidency. Trump rebutted by claiming he built the "greatest economy in the history of our country" before the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump claimed that Biden supported the job growth of illegal immigrants, defending his ten percent tariff, and criticized the 2020–2021 U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. He argued that Biden began his term with successes from the Trump presidency, but chose to implement negative reform. After a question regarding the national debt, Biden trailed off and appeared to lose his train of thought, saying: "...Making sure that we're able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I've been able to deal with … the COVID … Excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with … look … if we finally beat Medicare." While Trump was talking, Biden often had his mouth open with his eyes staring unblinking into the distance. On illegal border crossings, Biden said, "I'm going to continue to move until we get to total ban — on the total initiative relative to what we're going to do with more border patrol and more asylum officers." Trump responded, "I really don't know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don't think he knows what he said either". At one point, Trump and Biden briefly had an argument over golfing abilities during a question regarding their fitness as president due to age.

Trump spoke more than Biden in the debate, with CNN reporting the former to have spoken 40 minutes and 12 seconds, and the latter 35 minutes and 41 seconds. Trump went off topic about 50% of the time, while Biden went off topic about 30% of the time during the debate. During the debate, Trump and Biden both used personal attacks against each other. Trump described Biden as "a very bad Palestinian", using the word "Palestinian" in a derogatory way, which was described by Al Jazeera, The New Arab, and Mother Jones as a form of anti-Palestinian racism. NBC News found that Trump made 106 attacks during the debate, while Biden made 72.

Fact-checking
The moderators did not fact check the candidates, and The New York Times reported that Trump made many "misleading attacks" and false statements. Biden, in turn, struggled to respond and appeared shaky, with The New York Times describing his performance as "meandering and mumbling". Numerous sources also mentioned lies and falsehoods and fact-checked the candidates.

Glenn Kessler, fact-checker for The Washington Post, summarized "35 of the most noteworthy claims that initially caught our interest", claims which he analyzed in depth: "In the contentious first presidential debate between President Biden and former president Donald Trump, Trump confidently relied on false assertions that have been debunked repeatedly. Biden, in what was viewed as a faltering performance, stretched the truth on occasion."

FactCheck.org summarized its coverage of the many false and inaccurate claims made by the candidates, which were also analyzed: "The much-anticipated first debate of 2024 between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump featured a relentless barrage of false and misleading statements from the two candidates on immigration, the economy, abortion, taxes and more."

The Associated Press analyzed a number of false claims: "President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump traded barbs and a variety of false and misleading information as they faced off in their first debate of the 2024 election."

Viewership
CNN reported that 47.9 million people watched the first debate, down from 73 million viewers during the first 2020 presidential debate. Nielsen Media Research later reported the number of viewers at 51.3 million; this does not include individuals who watched the debate through social media, streaming services, or listened through radio.

Broadcast networks Cable news networks

Overview
Trump was declared the winner of the debate by columnists from The Hill, CNN, Politico, The New York Times, USA Today, Business Insider, and Vox. Columnists from MSNBC, The Cook Political Report, The Guardian, and the Los Angeles Times argued that while Trump did not win the debate, Biden "clearly lost".

According to a CNN flash poll afterwards, 67% of text message respondents believed Trump won the debate, while 33% felt Biden won. A YouGov poll conducted the following morning had 43% of respondents listing Trump as the debate winner, compared to 22% for Biden, while 35% were unsure. A poll from Ipsos and FiveThirtyEight found that 60% believed Trump won, versus 21% that said Biden won. That poll found that, among the viewers, the debate did not significantly change support for either candidate, though Biden slightly lost support while Trump marginally gained support. A poll by Morning Consult released on June 28 indicated that 60% of voters were in favor of replacing Biden. Amy Walter, the editor of The Cook Political Report, said that while Biden's poor performance stunned "Democratic elite types", many voters had already "priced this in". According to Crowdtangle, "most of the top 10 most-liked posts on Instagram about the debate were either pretty neutral or emphasized how bad it was for both campaigns. … And on TikTok, there was also a universal vibe that both candidates, not just Biden, were less than ideal for the moment."

Reporters in the spin room after the debate ignored Trump representatives as they asked Biden's team to explain the president's performance. The Trump campaign received only a few media requests the next morning—compared to the typical about two dozen, and far more after previous debates—as reporters continued focusing on Biden. "No one was more shocked at Biden's performance than Donald Trump", an advisor told the Washington Post. The candidate reportedly told aides that he could not even look at Biden. Following the debate, CNN reported criticism of Biden's performance by some Democrats, with one Democratic strategist dubbing it a "disaster" and another as "nothing good". Media sources described Biden's voice as "hoarse" and "raspy", and described him as frequently losing his train of thought and having meandering answers, with many citing his "We finally beat Medicare" response to a question on the national debt as emblematic of this. Susan Glasser of The New Yorker described it as the worst televised presidential debate ever, edging out the first 2020 presidential debate between the two men, with Biden's weak performance overshadowing Trump's falsehoods.

American writer and political consultant Tim Miller called Biden's performance the "worst performance in the history of televised presidential debates", a sentiment also shared by Jeff Greenfield of Politico and NewsNation chief political analyst Chris Stirewalt. Journalist Jake Sherman reported that several congressional Democrats thought that Biden "didn't even clear the lowest bar", and that Biden was not even able to articulate what his policies are even if they agreed on them. Some Democrats were unsure whether he should continue his campaign and be the Democratic nominee. CNN's chief national correspondent John King reported that there was "a deep, a wide, and a very aggressive panic" in the Democratic Party that started a few minutes into the debate. During the debate, unnamed elected officials, party strategists, and fundraisers were reported to have discussed replacing Biden as the party's candidate due to fears about him potentially hurting other Democrats' public perceptions, and deciding if prominent Democrats should make a public statement about asking Biden to step down.

After being deemed ineligible, Kennedy counterprogrammed the debate with a campaign event from Los Angeles dubbed "The Real Debate", moderated by John Stossel, in which he provided his own responses to the questions that were posed to Biden and Trump during the actual debate. The event was live streamed on Rumble and X; on X, Kennedy's stream began with roughly 618,000 viewers, and peaked at over one million.

The day after the debate, Biden admitted that his debate performance was weak, and his performance led to an increase in questions as to whether or not he should remain as the Democratic Party's presidential candidate. The editorial board of The New York Times called for Biden to exit the presidential race, stating there are other "Democratic leaders better equipped to present clear, compelling and energetic alternatives to a second Trump presidency" and that "the burden rests on the Democratic Party to put the interests of the nation above the ambitions of a single man". In response to the debate, Time magazine published the cover for their forthcoming August 5 issue, featuring Biden walking off-cover, captioned simply with "Panic." The magazine wrote, "[it] is not a word too strong to describe sentiment that spreads throughout the Democratic Party from top to bottom during the debate." The magazine also published an article written by Caroline Randall Williams calling on Biden to do "the historic thing" and step down. Williams noted many of Biden's historic achievements, writing that it would be his greatest to allow another candidate to run. The Democratic Party announced it brought in $14 million on June 27 and throughout the early morning of June 28, with the 11p.m. to 12a.m. hour after the debate accounting for the "single best hour of fundraising since the campaign's launch in April 2023." The Trump campaign announced receiving $8 million on debate day. Biden spoke about his debate performance on July 2 and claimed that his "foreign travel" beforehand caused it.

Democratic Party response
About an hour into the debate, a Biden aide and others familiar with his situation claimed that Biden had a cold. He had been administered a COVID-19 test during his stay at Camp David, which was negative. Biden attended a debate watch party shortly after the debate, where it was reported that he energetically thanked his supporters, calling them the reason why America is as good as it is. A CBS host stated that his demeanor made it appear like "his cold has been cured".

President Biden stated to reporters at a Waffle House after the debate: "I think we did well" and said he did not have any concerns about his performance or calls for him to drop out of the presidential race, stating that it was difficult to debate "a liar." Biden was congratulated by his wife, First Lady Jill Biden, on his performance at a post-debate gathering. She told him on stage that he did "such a great job. You answered every question." Biden's running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris, claimed that while Biden "started off slow", he still managed to have a strong finish. Biden-Harris 2024 campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon praised Biden's debate performance, saying that he presented a "positive and winning vision" for the future.

California Governor Gavin Newsom stated that moments where Biden stumbled upon his words were "significantly insignificant" due to American voters not supporting Trump policies on issues such as abortion, saying Biden won the debate "on substance". He said that the American people need to have Biden's back instead of turning on him "at this critical time" because of one performance. Pennsylvania Democratic Senator John Fetterman, who had a similarly weak debate performance in his 2022 election, told fellow Democrats to "Chill the fuck out", stating that he refused to join the "Democratic vultures on Biden's shoulder". Several other prominent Democrats, including former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, rallied behind Biden, and resisted calls for him to step down due to one "bad debate."

Other associates of Biden were more critical, with political advisor Kate Bedingfield stating that there was no way to interpret his debate performance as good, and political consultant David Axelrod saying that it seemed that Biden panicked early in the debate, which "confirmed people's fears". Democratic strategist Van Jones said that Biden had failed a test to restore the confidence of the country, and that the reaction for many supporters was "not just panic, it's pain". Former Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro called the results of the debate "completely predictable", and that Biden failed to clear a very low bar by seeming unprepared, lost, and not strong enough to resist Trump's attacks or lies.

Because of the debate's unusually early schedule, Congress was still in session. Reporters swarmed Democratic members, asking them to comment on Biden's performance. About half avoided commenting, Tom Suozzi of New York even boarding an elevator going in the wrong direction, and another allegedly faking a phone call. Others acknowledged that Biden performed poorly but still endorsed him. Jared Huffman of California and Greg Landsman of Ohio were among those who publicly said they were unsure whether Biden should be the nominee. Jared Golden of Maine and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington both stated they believed that Biden would lose the election.

International response
Chinese journalist and former Global Times editor Hu Xijin said the debate was "very entertaining for many Chinese people". The debate was a trending topic on microblogging website Weibo, where users noted Biden's age. Trump's tie was compared to the red scarves worn by young communist revolutionaries; Trump has been referred to as a "nation-builder" (建国) in China for ostensibly allowing China to ascend in global affairs. Israeli newspaper Haaretz and British tabloid The Sun criticized Biden's performance, and statements made by German politician Norbert Röttgen and former British ambassador to the United States Kim Darroch also expressed concern. Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski commented on X that Biden should now manage a succession plan. Many European allies were extremely concerned with the debate, while Russian state media mocked Biden's performance.

Calls for President Biden to drop out
Democrats such as Julian Castro and Dean Phillips had hurt their careers for publicly saying that Biden was too old before the debate, but immediately following the debate, some in the party began calling for President Biden to drop out of the presidential race. Democratic strategist James Carville and former 2020 Democratic presidential primary candidate Andrew Yang were the first notable Democrats to make those calls. On July 2, U.S. Congressman Lloyd Doggett of Texas became the first Democrat in Congress to publicly call for Biden to step aside as the party's nominee. He was joined by various Congressmembers in the following days. On July 7, four more House Democrats, during a "private call", called for Biden to exit the race, including Adam Smith, Jerry Nadler, Mark Takano, and Joe Morelle. Smith went on the record the following day and called for Biden to withdraw.

Biden stated in an ABC News interview with George Stephanopoulos on July 5 that he would not end his candidacy. The president again refused to drop out on July 8. That day Biden appeared on Morning Joe on MSNBC by telephone, advising the "elites in the party" against his nomination to "run against me. Announce for president. Challenge me at the convention". He sent a letter to Congressional Democrats before Morning Joe explaining his decision, stating that "The question of how to move forward has been well-aired for over a week now. And it's time for it to end". In an attempt to show voters and Democratic politicians that he was capable of facing Donald Trump in the 2024 election, he held a solo press conference on July 11, 2024, following the NATO 2024 Washington summit.

Biden later suspended his re-election campaign on July 21, 2024.

September 10 presidential debate
The second debate, agreed to by both campaigns prior to Biden's withdrawal, is scheduled to be held on Tuesday, September 10, 2024, on ABC.

ABC announced that the debate would be simulcast for airing on other networks.

Kennedy has a better chance of qualifying for the September debate, compared to the June debate, which he did not qualify for.

In the wake of the suspension of Biden's re-election campaign, Trump suggested on Truth social that the debate should be hosted by Fox News. Biden's withdrawal has cast doubt on whether there will even be a second debate.

February 29 debate (New York City)
The Free & Equal Elections Foundation hosted a multiparty debate on February 29, 2024, in New York City, New York moderated by Caitlin Sinclair, Jason Palmer and Christina Tobin. Socialism and Liberation nominee Claudia De la Cruz, Libertarian candidates Chase Oliver and Lars Mapstead, and Green candidates Jill Stein and Jasmine Sherman attended. Independent candidates Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West were also invited but did not attend.

July 12 debate (Las Vegas)


Free and Equal hosted a second debate on July 12, 2024, at FreedomFest in Las Vegas, Nevada moderated by the foundation's chair, Christina Tobin and congressman Thomas Massie.

Candidates invited to the debate were: Biden, Kennedy, Oliver, Stein, Randall Terry, Trump and West.

Oliver, Stein, and Terry were the candidates who participated.

September debate
The Free and Equal plan to host a third debate on September 2024.