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