Joe Biden has challenged Donald Trump to two presidential debates in June and September

Joe Biden has defied speculation his advancing years would see him avoid presidential debates with Donald Trump, challenging his predecessor to two public debates in June and September.

US President Donald Trump speaks during the first presidential debate at Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio.

Joe Biden and Donald Trump have agreed to two presidential debates starting next month, defying widespread predictions the incumbent president would avoid a public clash with his predecessor owing to his increasingly feeble and infrequent public speaking performances.

Mr Biden, 81, issued a surprise debate challenge to Mr Trump on Wednesday morning (Thursday AEST), an offer Mr Trump eagerly accepted, locking in a first debate on June 27th and a second on September 10th, to be hosted by the CNN and ABC networks respectively.

“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 again. Well, make my day, pal,” Mr Biden said in a social media statement.

“Let’s pick the dates, I hear you’re free on Wednesdays,” he added in an accompanying video message, taunting Mr Trump over the weekday that he’s not required to appear in court in Manhattan.

The president’s challenge indicates growing confidence in the White House about Mr Biden’s prospects come the November presidential poll, following a bump in support nationally following his widely praised State of the Union address in March.

Mr Trump, 77, who has called for debates with the president numerous times since he became the presumptive Republican Party nominee for president, issued a stream of social media posts, accepting the challenge and slamming the president’s acuity.

“Crooked Joe Biden is the WORST debater I have ever faced - He can’t put two sentences together!” Mr Trump said on his Truth Social platform, soon after challenging the president to a third debate in October on Fox News.

“It’s time for a debate so that he can explain to the American People his highly destructive Open Border Policy, new and ridiculous EV Mandates, the allowance of Crushing Inflation, High Taxes, and his really WEAK Foreign Policy, which is allowing the World to ‘Catch on Fire’”.

The debates could signal a ratings bonanza for the two networks, given the longstanding personal enmity between the two men, and a nailbiting series of evenings for both candidate’s political advisers. More than 70 million Americans watched the first presidential debate between the two in 2020, while 84 million watched Mr Trump debate Hillary Clinton in the lead up to the 2016 election.

The Biden campaign team declined Mr Trump’s suggestion of a third debate in October.

“President Biden made his terms clear for two one-on-one debates, and Donald Trump accepted those terms,” said Jen O’Malley Dillon, the campaign’s chair. “No more games. No more chaos. No more debate about debates.”

The president’s campaign has also signalled it does not want a live audience, and has asked the respective cable networks to organise them rather than the Commission on Presidential Debates that typically organises them.

Presidential debates have a history going back to the 1960, when a nervous and sweating Richard Nixon was widely perceived to have been trounced by the young John F Kennedy, who went on to win the election. After Nixon’s experience there wasn’t another presidential debate until 1976, when Jimmy Carter faced off against Gerald Ford.

Ron Klain, the president’s former chief of staff and close confidant, told the New York Times he would take a break from his new job at Airbnb to help the president prepare. “On my own time, I will assist,” he told the paper in a text message.

National pulls put the former president slightly ahead of Joe Biden, by around one percentage point according to an average of polls tracked by FiveThirtyEight, and he leads the incumbent by a small margin in political betting markets too.

Former Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson said the White House had insisted no third party candidates, such as Robert F Kennedy, would be allowed to join the debate.

“This is exactly what they did to Ralph Nader in 2000. We must challenge the presumption that only a party establishment elite can dictate the rules of democratic engagement,” she said on social media.

Mr Kennedy said the two political leaders, who have each cast the former Democrat as a far left and far right extremist, respectively, were “trying to exclude me from their debate because they are afraid I would win.”

If Kennedy can both poll above 15 per cent in four nationally recognised polls and obtain ballot access to states with a total number of electoral college votes of at least 270 before the first June 27th debate, he could participate based on CNN’s own presidential debate rules.