Donald Trump revealed Wednesday that he has agreed to “sit at a table” with Joe Biden — despite his strong preference to stand — during their upcoming debates.
The seated format was a request made by the 81-year-old president’s campaign team, according to Trump.
“I hear now we’re sitting at tables. I don’t want to sit at a table,” the 77-year-old former president told John Catsimatidis and Rita Cosby during an appearance on the “Cats & Cosby Show” on WABC 770 AM.
“I said, ‘No, let’s stand.’ But they want to sit at a table,” Trump said. “So we’ll be sitting at a table as opposed to doing it the way you should be, in my opinion, in a debate.”
The presumptive Republican nominee for president explained that his personal preference would be to “walk out to a podium” and “stand for an hour-and-a-half or two hours.”
“But they have [Biden] sitting at a table, so that’s not so good,” Trump said, calling the seated debate format “one of the many” requests the Biden campaign insisted on.
“But I agree to their requests because I want to debate him,” the former president told Catsimatidis and Cosby, noting that he intends to press Biden on the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
“If [Biden] gets through the debate, they’ll say it was brilliant,” Trump argued.
The Trump and Biden campaigns have agreed to two scheduled debates, which include a June 27 event hosted by CNN and a Sept. 10 showdown with ABC News.
It’s unclear if the seated format will be for both debates.
There will be no live audience at either forum, in accordance with the Biden campaign’s request.
The agreement between the two camps cuts out the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), which has organized the head-to-head events since the 1988 election cycle.
Both campaigns have signaled a willingness to participate in a vice-presidential debate as well, but the details of that event have not been agreed upon.
Biden wants the veep debate aired on CBS, while Trump prefers that the contest be hosted by Fox News.
