美国广播公司新闻是五大广播和有线新闻网的统一分组之一，其他还有主要的有线、印刷和广播组织，他们写了一封公开信，要求总统候选人公开承诺参加大选前的电视辩论。
除了美国广播公司新闻，这封信还由哥伦比亚广播公司新闻，美国有线电视新闻网，NBC环球新闻集团和福克斯新闻媒体，以及美联社，C-SPAN，NewsNation，Noticias Univision(Univision Network News)，NPR，PBS NewsHour和USA TODAY签署。
周日发表的这封信写道:“随着2024年大选的轮廓逐渐清晰，我们这些署名的国家新闻机构敦促推定总统候选人在11月大选前公开承诺参加大选辩论。”
这一不同寻常的举动正值选举周期，在此期间，辩论这一有几十年历史的美国竞选传统受到了总统乔·拜登和前总统唐纳德·特朗普的不确定性。
特朗普跳过了共和党全国委员会批准的所有四场2024年初选辩论，并退出了2020年与拜登的三场辩论中的一场，他热情地敦促拜登参加定于今年秋天举行的三场一般性辩论——他的竞选活动周日再次重申了这一立场。
“特朗普总统已经非常明确:他愿意在任何时间、任何地点、任何地点与乔·拜登进行辩论。我们再次呼吁乔·拜登致力于辩论，”女发言人卡罗琳·莱维特说。
拜登竞选团队对总统辩论委员会组织这些辩论表示担忧，这表明自20世纪80年代以来一直赞助这些活动的无党派团体不清楚他们是否有能力与特朗普进行“公平”的辩论。
2022年4月，共和党全国委员会也一致投票决定退出总统辩论委员会。
拜登竞选团队拒绝对这封新信件发表评论，但总统此前淡化了特朗普与他一起上台的渴望。
“好吧，如果我是他，我也想和自己辩论。他没有别的事可做，”拜登今年2月告诉记者。
“大选辩论在我们美国的民主制度中有着丰富的传统，从1976年开始，在过去50年的每一次总统选举中都发挥了至关重要的作用。在每一次选举中，数以千万计的人收看了候选人的并排辩论，为美国公民的选票而进行的思想竞争，”媒体组织在他们的信中敦促道。
“在这个两极分化的时期，如果有一件事美国人可以达成一致，那就是这次选举的风险异常之高。在这种背景下，候选人之间的辩论，以及在美国人民面前，他们对我们国家未来的愿景，是不可替代的。
拜登基本上避免公开评论与特朗普的辩论。在3月份发表国情咨文后，当被问及是否会做出承诺时，拜登对美国广播公司新闻说:“这取决于他的行为。”
民主党全国委员会全力支持拜登，尽管他的长期挑战者敦促，但本周期没有举行任何初选辩论。然而，自从1948年举行第一次现代辩论以来，还没有在任总统参加初选辩论的先例——即使是面对高调的初选对手。
特朗普的竞选团队仍在努力游说针对拜登的大选辩论。周四，前总统的高级竞选顾问致信总统辩论委员会，呼吁比最初提议的“早得多”和“更多”的总统辩论，称投票开始得“越来越早”。
特朗普竞选顾问苏西·怀尔斯(Susie Wiles)和克里斯·拉西维塔(Chris LaCivita)在信中写道:“投票开始得越来越早，正如我们在2020年看到的那样，在第一次辩论时，数千万美国人已经投票了。”
“具体到委员会提出的2024年日历，它简直来得太晚了，”他们写道，列出了美国人在目前提议的日期之前可能投票的估计数。
两人声称，美国人在2020年“被剥夺了一场真正而有力的辩论”，因为辩论委员会在冠状病毒疫情期间接受了拜登竞选团队的愿望。
2020年，只有两场辩论涉及拜登和特朗普。前总统退出后，第三场预定的辩论被取消，因为新冠肺炎事件，它从现场变成了虚拟活动。
特朗普随后攻击该委员会，声称他不会接受他们旨在执行规则和限制剩余总统辩论中断的任何改变。
RNC在2022年投票退出委员会批准的辩论，要求候选人承诺不参加这些辩论。国家党没有改变立场。
委员会宣布计划于9月16日在德克萨斯州立大学举行第一场辩论，10月1日在弗吉尼亚州立大学举行第二场辩论，10月9日在盐湖城犹他大学举行第三场辩论。它计划于9月25日在宾夕法尼亚州的拉斐特学院举行一场副总统辩论。
Major media organizations urge Biden and Trump to debate
ABC News is among a unified grouping of the five chief broadcast and cable news networks, along with major wire, print and radio organizations, that have penned an open letter asking presidential candidates to publicly commit to taking part in televised debates ahead of the general election.
In addition to ABC News, the letter is signed by CBS News, CNN, NBCUniversal News Group and FOX News Media, along with The Associated Press, C-SPAN, NewsNation, Noticias Univision (Univision Network News), NPR, PBS NewsHour and USA TODAY.
"With the contours of the 2024 general election now coming into clear focus, we -- the undersigned national news organizations -- urge the presumptive presidential nominees to publicly commit to participating in general election debates before November's election," the letter, published on Sunday, reads.
This unusual move comes amid an election cycle during which the practice of debates, a decades-old American campaign tradition, has been met with uncertainty from both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
Trump, who skipped all four Republican National Committee-sanctioned 2024 primary election debates and pulled out of one of his three debates with Biden in 2020, has enthusiastically urged Biden to participate in the three general debates scheduled for this fall -- a position echoed by his campaign again on Sunday.
"President Trump has been very clear: he is willing to debate Joe Biden any time, any where, any place. We once again call on Joe Biden to commit to debates," spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said.
The Biden campaign has expressed concern with the organization of these debates by the Commission on Presidential Debates, signaling that the nonpartisan group that has sponsored the events since the 1980s has been unclear about their ability to administer a "fair" debate with Trump.
In April 2022, the Republican National Committee also voted unanimously to withdraw from the Commission on Presidential Debates.
The Biden campaign declined to comment on the new letter but the president has previously played down Trump's eagerness to get on stage with him.
"Well if I were him I'd want to debate me, too. He's got nothing else to do," Biden told reporters in February.
"General election debates have a rich tradition in our American democracy, having played a vital role in every presidential election of the past 50 years, dating to 1976. In each of those elections, tens of millions have tuned in to watch the candidates debating side by side, in a competition of ideas for the votes of American citizens," the media organizations urged in their letter.
"If there is one thing Americans can agree on during this polarized time, it is that the stakes of this election are exceptionally high. Amidst that backdrop, there is simply no substitute for the candidates debating with each other, and before the American people, their visions for the future of our nation," the letter concludes.
Biden has mostly avoided commenting publicly on engaging in debate with Trump. Asked following his State of the Union address in March if he would commit to one, Biden remarked to ABC News: "It depends on his behavior."
The Democratic National Committee, which has thrown all of its support behind Biden, did not hold any primary election debates this cycle despite the urging of his long shot challengers. There is no precedent for an incumbent president to have participated in a primary debate, however, since the first modern debate was held in 1948-- even when presented with high-profile primary opponents.
Trump's campaign is still lobbying hard for general election debates against Biden. On Thursday, the former president's senior campaign advisers sent a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates calling for "much earlier" and "more" presidential debates than initially proposed, saying voting is beginning "earlier and earlier."
"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," top Trump campaign advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita wrote in the letter.
"Specific to the Commission's proposed 2024 calendar, it simply comes too late," they wrote, listing estimates of how many votes Americans will have likely voted by current proposed dates.
The two claimed Americans were "robbed of a true and robust" debate in 2020 because the debate commission accepted the Biden campaign's wish amid the coronavirus pandemic.
In 2020, there were only two debates involving Biden and Trump. A third scheduled debate was canceled after the former president backed out because it was moved from being an in-person to virtual event because of COVID-19.
Trump then attacked the commission, claiming he would not accept any of their changes intended to enforce the rules and limit interruptions at the remaining presidential debates.
The RNC's vote in 2022 to pull back from comission-sanctioned debates mandated that candidates pledge not to participate in them. The national party has not revised its position.
The commission has announced it plans to hold the first debate on Sep. 16 at Texas State University, the second on Oct. 1 at Virginia State University and the third on Oct. 9 at The University of Utah, Salt Lake City. It plans to hold a vice presidential debate on Sept. 25 at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania.
