The date is set for the first presidential debate of 2024.

Over the course of just a few hours today, the traditional presidential debate model was thrown out the window as President Joseph Biden and former President Donald Trump agreed to hold two campaign debates, apparently under Biden’s conditions. 

The first showdown will be held on June 27th, hosted by CNN, and the second is now scheduled for September 10th, hosted by ABC News.

The way this all unfolded, today, basically upends a decades-old tradition of three fall debates organized by the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates. That was a condition set by Biden.

Wednesday morning his campaign sent a letter to the commission announcing Biden will only agree to participate in debates hosted by news organizations.

Several reasons are listed, including a desire to hold the debates much sooner than the dates the organization proposed. The Biden campaign also wants it to be just the two candidates and a moderator with no live audience for Trump to build off. And finally, the Biden campaign didn’t like the way the commission handled the 2020 presidential debates.

After sending out that letter, Biden took to “X” to mock Trump, saying, “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, I’ll even do it twice. So let’s pick the dates, Donald, I hear you’re free on Wednesdays.”

The Biden campaign even started selling “Free on Wednesdays” t-shirts to insult Trump over his ongoing trial in New York. The case, which was brought to trial at the height of this election year, has prohibited Trump from hitting the campaign trail because he’s typically required to appear in court every weekday except for Wednesdays.

With both candidates agreeing to debate, Trump posted on Truth Social, “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.”

Timing was one of the major reasons for ignoring the traditional debate model this year. With so many voters now participating in early voting, it’s important the candidates get in front of the American public as soon as possible.