Trump challenges Biden to a THIRD debate... and Joe immediately responds: Donald calls for a Fox News showdown in shootout between campaigns

Donald Trump challenged Joe Biden to a third debate in October during a hectic back-and-forth Wednesday where the two presidential candidates hashed out their debate schedule.

'Please let this TRUTH serve to represent that I hereby accept debating Crooked Joe Biden on FoxNews. The date will be Wednesday, October 2nd. The Hosts will be Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum. Thank you, DJT!,' Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Biden declined to meet more than the two times he proposed.

His campaign manager said it was because Trump 'has a long history of playing games with debates: complaining about the rules, breaking those rules, pulling out at the last minute, or not showing up at all – which he’s done repeatedly in all three cycles he’s run for president.'

'President Biden made his terms clear for two one-on-one debates, and Donald Trump accepted those terms. No more games. No more chaos, no more debate about debates. We’ll see Donald Trump on June 27th in Atlanta – if he shows up,' Jen O'Malley Dillon said in a statement.

In a whirl-wind Wednesday morning filled with taunts at each on social media, Biden and Trump agreed to two presidential debates that will take place in June and September.

'I am,' Biden said Wednesday at the White House when asked if he is looking forward to debating his rival. 

CNN will host the first debate on June 27th. It will be the first primetime TV showdown of the 2024 general election. Jake Tapper and Dana Bash will moderate.

Biden and Trump also agreed to a second debate on September 10th with ABC News.

It all started when Biden threw down the gauntlet by proposing two debates in a video message directed at the Republican nominee, telling Trump to 'go ahead, make my day.'

President Joe Biden challenged Donald Trump to two debates

The former president accepted and countered with an offer to meet two more times ahead of the November election.

'Crooked Joe Biden is the WORST debater I have ever faced - He can't put two sentences together!,' Trump wrote on Truth Social.

'I am Ready and Willing to Debate Crooked Joe at the two proposed times in June and September. I would strongly recommend more than two debates and, for excitement purposes, a very large venue, although Biden is supposedly afraid of crowds - That's only because he doesn't get them. Just tell me when, I'll be there. 'Let's get ready to Rumble!!!'  

Trump also told conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt he'll be there but doubts his Democratic rival will be.

'I wonder whether or not he shows up because he also challenged me to golf, he can't hit a ball 50 yard,' he said.

The former president also told Fox News Digital that 'the proposed June and early September dates are fully acceptable to me. I will provide my own transportation.'

Biden got in another swipe at Trump with his acceptance of the September debate.

'I've also received and accepted an invitation to a debate hosted by ABC on Tuesday, September 10th. Trump says he’ll arrange his own transportation. I’ll bring my plane, too. I plan on keeping it for another four years,' he wrote on X. 

And, in his original offer, Biden taunted Trump with 'I hear you're free on Wednesdays.'

Trump, who is in his fourth week of a hush-money trial in New York, is required by the judge to be in court for testimony. Wednesday is the only day the court is not in session.

'It is my great honor to accept the CNN Debate against Crooked Joe Biden, the WORST PRESIDENT in the History of the United States and a true Threat to Democracy, on June 27th. Likewise, I accept the ABC News Debate against Crooked Joe on September 10th. Thank you, DJT!,' he wrote on Truth social. 

The former president has complained that he is stuck in court instead of being on the campaign trail. The trial could wrap up next week. 

Biden proposed their first presidential debate be in late June and the second would occur in September before early voting begins. He proposed a vice presidential debate in July.

'Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020. Since then he hasn't shown up for a debate.  Now he's acting like he wants to debate me against. Well, makee my day now, I'll even do it twice. So let's pick the days Donald. I hear you're free on Wednesdays,' he says in the video.

Trump's team accepted and countered with an offer for two more debates.

'We propose a debate in June, a debate in July, a debate in August, and a debate in September, in addition to the Vice Presidential debate,' Trump co-managers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said.

'We believe there should be more than just two opportunities for the American people to hear more from the candidates themselves,' they noted. 'We believe the American people deserve more than what the Biden administration has to offer.'

The Trump campaign has pushed for as many debates as possible, believing they will help their candidate and show Biden as old and feeble. 

There is a catch to Biden's offer.

Biden is proposing to use a different system than in the past. He wants news organizations to organize the debates and not use the traditional system that is overseen by the Commission on Presidential Debates.

His campaign informed the commission on Wednesday that Biden will not be participating in their debates.

'The purpose of this letter is to provide notice that the President will not be participating in the Commission on Presidential Debates' announced debates in 2024 and plans to participate in debates hosted by news organizations,' campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon wrote.

O'Malley Dillon points out the commission's debate schedule has the debates taking place after early voting has already begun.

She also complains the debates have become 'huge spectacles with large audiences.'

Biden's re-election team has expressed concerns about the commission's failure to enforce the rules in the 2020 debate, particularly when it came to Trump.

In their first debate, hosted by Fox News, Trump repeatedly interrupted Biden during Biden's allotted speaking time and didn't stop - even when moderator Chris Wallace urged him to. 

At one point, Biden said to Trump: 'Will you shut up, man?' 

O'Malley Dillon, in her letter, noted: 'The Commission includes rules that candidates were called upon to follow, and yet it was unable or unwilling to enforce the rules in the 2020 debates.'

She outlines a plan where a news network that 'hosted a Republican Primary debate in 2016 in which Donald Trump participated, and a Democratic primary debate in 2020 in which President Biden participated' would lead the debate.

Networks that meet that requirement include CBS News, ABC News, CNN and Telemundo. 

The moderator would be 'selected by the broadcast host from among their regular personnel, so as to avoid a 'ringer' or partisan.' 

The Biden campaign also wants the time evenly divided and to only have a candidate's microphone on when it's their turn to answer.

This would be to keep Trump from speaking over Biden, as he did many times in their 2020 meet ups. 

Additionally, the Biden team wants it to just be the two candidates and the moderator in the room. That means no in-person audience - Trump feeds on cheers from a crowd - and no third-party candidates like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 

If Kennedy reaches 15 percent in national polling, he would qualify for the commission's debates.

CNN's debate meets the president's requirements. It will be just Trump and Biden on stage at CNN headquarters in Atlanta with no audience, the network said in a press release.

And a candidate’s name must appear on a sufficient number of state ballots to reach the 270 electoral vote threshold to win the presidency - which will keep out independent candidates.

Kennedy slammed the decision to exclude him.

'Presidents Trump and Biden are colluding to lock America into a head-to-head match-up that 70% say they do not want. They are trying to exclude me from their debate because they are afraid I would win,' he wrote on X.

Donald Trump has said he will debate Joe Biden 'anytime, anywhere'

'We believe the first debate should be in late June, after Donald Trump's New York criminal trial is likely to be over and after President Biden returns from meeting with world leaders at the G7 Summit,' O'Malley Dillon says of their debate schedule.

'A second presidential debate should be held in early September at the start of the fall campaign season, early enough to influence early voting, but not so late as to require the candidates to leave the campaign trail in the critical late September and October period.'

Previously, Biden had been vague about debating Trump, saying in March that whether he debated Trump 'depends on his behavior.' 

In addition to Trump's interrupting, Biden and his team were furious about the failure to enforce COVID protocols around the first presidential debate, which took place during the height of the pandemic.

Hope Hicks, a top aide to Trump, had tested positive for COVID ahead of the debate. Trump announced after the debate he was positive. The second debate was cancelled as it was scheduled for a time Trump would still be considered as contagious.

Trump has said he is willing to debate Biden 'anytime, anywhere.' 

The commission scheduled their debates for Sept. 16, Oct. 1, and Oct. 9. 

The Trump campaign also has complained about those dates.

In April, Trump co-campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita wrote to the comission asking for earlier debates, noting 'voting is beginning earlier and earlier, and as we saw in 2020, tens of millions of Americans had already voted by the time of the first debate.' 

'By the date of the first proposed debate, September 16, 2024, over 1 million Americans will have likely voted,' Wiles and LaCivita wrote. 'By the date of the second proposed debate, October 1, 2024, the number of Americans who will have likely cast a ballot will be over 3 million, an increase of 225%.' 

The commission has managed presidential debates since 1988. 

Joe Biden's team has expressed concerns about the commission's failure to enforce the rules in the 2020 debate, particularly when it came to Donald Trump, who repeatedly interrupted Biden's speaking time - above the two men at a debate in Cleveland in September 20202

In the 2020 contest, Biden and Trump debated twice.

More than 73 million people watched the two men during their first debate - which was short of the 84 million who watched Trump take on Hillary Clinton in 2016. 

But presidential debates are typically among the most-watched telecasts of the year, beating events like the Oscars.

One television network is the host and the event is typically simulcast on every major cable and broadcast network.

If none take place, this year's election could be the first in 50 years without a debate between the general election candidates.