Democratic primary voters expressed in a landslide poll their interest in President Joe Biden engaging in debates with other left-wing presidential candidates.
Eight in 10 Democratic primary voters want the president to debate fellow candidates Marianne Williamson and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a USA Today/Suffolk University poll shows. Seventy-two percent, a majority of voters who back Biden, want to see him debate his challengers.
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However, Biden has shown no interest in joining his rivals on the debate stage before the presidential primary despite facing pressure from constituents.
The Democratic National Committee announced it would not hold primary debates this year, although two other contenders are in the running.
In the previous election cycle, the DNC held 12 debates beginning in June 2019, with Biden participating in the debates during the primaries.
Williamson, a self-help author who announced her 2024 presidential campaign in March, criticized the DNC as doing Biden's bidding.
“As though there simply ARE no other candidates … no other ideas we should discuss about ways to win in 2024, or other ideas we should discuss about ways to repair the country,” Williamson wrote on Twitter.
The other long-shot Democratic presidential candidate, Kennedy, who announced his presidential bid in April, has also attacked the DNC for its lack of primary debates.
“I think it would be a disadvantage for him to debate me,” Kennedy said to the Hill last week. “I don’t think the optics are good for the American people.”
Former President Donald Trump has also suggested he may avoid at least one of the first two Republican presidential primary debates, according to sources, as reported by the New York Times.
The poll revealed many Democratic voters are hesitant to cast their ballot for Biden, with 21% undecided. Biden continues to hold the majority of support, with 58% of Democrats backing the president. The poll shows 15% of Democratic voters support Kennedy and 6% back Williamson.