Former Biden White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain discussed the potential for debates between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump on MSNBC’s Inside With Jen Psaki. Klain emphasized the need for structured and well-enforced rules to prevent the debates from devolving into chaotic shouting matches.
In a recent interview with Howard Stern, Biden indicated his willingness to debate Trump, while Trump has been demanding immediate debates, often using social media to challenge Biden. Klain acknowledged these developments, stating that both candidates have signaled a willingness to debate.
However, Klain noted that debates in 2016 and 2020 were chaotic, with Trump often disregarding the rules, talking over his opponents, and turning the debates into spectacles rather than orderly discussions. Klain suggested that for the upcoming debates, strict rules must be enforced to ensure a fair and orderly format. This would allow each candidate to have equal time to speak, providing voters with a clear comparison of the two leading candidates for president.
Jen Psaki, the host of the show and former Biden press secretary, asked Klain what rules should be implemented to ensure a fair debate. Klain responded that debates should be structured to prevent interruptions, ensure an equal division of time, and promote an orderly exchange of ideas. This would help maintain the integrity of the debate and give the American public a better opportunity to understand the candidates’ positions.
Psaki reiterated the importance of clear rules and their enforcement in the debate process. Klain agreed, emphasizing that the negotiation of rules is a critical part of ensuring a successful debate. He suggested that without proper enforcement, debates risk becoming a spectacle rather than a meaningful discussion on important issues.
PSAKI: I want to ask you about debates because I don’t — perhaps you have prepped more presidential candidates for debates than anyone. Someone can fact check me on that. But there’s this whole question of will they debate, won’t they debate, we’ll see what happens. They both said they would.
But you’ve also said that there need to be kind of fair rules. What do those look like? And what should people understand about that?
KLAIN: I think they will debate. President Biden said this week on Howard Stern’s show that he’s willing to debate him, and Trump was running around claiming he’d debate him anytime anywhere.
PSAKI: Including today. I like it when he said it.
KLAIN: Yes. I don’t think that’s true. But I think there will be debates. I think what we have to see is something different than we saw in 2016 and 2020, where the debate commission lost control of the debates, Trump didn’t follow the rules at all, he talked over his opponents, there wasn’t a fair division of time, it was more a spectacle than a debate. That’s always going to be true with Donald Trump on the stage.
But we need to have debates where the candidates get equal time, where there is an orderly way of proceeding, where they can be heard, where it’s not a shouting match, where the American people can compare the two people who are the leading candidates for president.
PSAKI: Yes. The rules are so important, which I think people don’t realize that that’s part of the negotiation of it all.
KLAIN: Definitely — rules are going to have to be enforced.
PSAKI: Absolutely.
