< 2 hrs after #POTUS Biden made his move Wed to upend the nation’s presidential #debate tradition, 2 of CNN’s top political journos were on the phone w/Trump’s high command.
“We are sending you a proposal for a #debate that will be in your inbox at 10AM,” one told Trump snr leadership, Susie Wiles, Chris LaCivita & Tony Fabrizio…before rattling off the terms of a June 27 meeting in Atlanta….
By 10:14AM, #Biden’s campaign had
announced the president would attend the CNN event. The #Trump campaign agreed mins later. One of the most consequential disruptions to the sequence of American presidential campaigns since the first televised #debate in 1960 had been completed by lunchtime.
The only thing left was for the campaigns & the country to figure out what had happened.
Disagreements about the debate conditions & the agreement’s significance flared even as voters began hearing the news. At 10:56AM, CNN announced terms that largely followed the demands #Biden had announced earlier that morning — a first meeting in June, organized by a network on Biden’s suggested list, w/no live audience [& muted mics when time’s up].
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