Apparently a lot of folks don't know this; The DNC and RNC run the debates jointly, setting the rules and expectations. Allegedly debate questions are not given to the candidates in advance but who knows.

The CPD was established in 1987 by the chairmen of the Democratic and Republican Parties to "take control of the presidential debates".[

At a 1987 press conference announcing the commission's creation, Fahrenkopf said that the commission was not likely to include third-party candidates in debates, and Kirk said he personally believed they should be excluded from the debates.

In 1988, the League of Women Voters withdrew its sponsorship of the presidential debates after the George H. W. Bush and Michael Dukakis campaigns secretly agreed to a "memorandum of understanding" that would decide which candidates could participate in the debates, which individuals would be panelists (and therefore able to ask questions), and the height of the lecterns. The league rejected the demands and released a statement saying that it was withdrawing support for the debates because "the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter."[5]

n May 2024, the Biden and Trump campaigns struck a deal to circumvent the CPD and participate in two debates (on CNN on June 27 and ABC News on September 10), breaking a longstanding tradition of debates organized under the auspices of the CPD.[10] The CNN debate will be "open to any presidential candidate who consistently polls above 15 percent in approved public surveys and is on enough state ballots to win a majority of electoral college votes."[10] The future of the CPD was thrown into doubt.[12]

Lol. Lmao