Joe Biden’s campaign is committing to three debates this fall with Trump that have already been planned by the Commission on Presidential Debates.
Trump advisors, including America’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani, started calling for four debates as well as having them earlier than scheduled, so that mail-in voters would be informed.
“We want fair debates. We want them sooner, and we want a bigger schedule,” Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said last week. “We also don’t want them up against football games competing for viewers. As many Americans as possible need to see the stark differences between the accomplishments and leadership of President Trump and the failed record and sleepiness of Joe Biden.”
Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon stated that “Joe Biden looks forward to facing Donald Trump in a multi-debate series that the American people have come to expect from their leaders; we hope that President Trump would not break that tradition or make excuses for a refusal to participate.”
Biden advisors laughed at the newfound excitement for debates, as Trump has previously stated he was unsure if he would participate in debates, and also pointed to the contradiction of the Trump campaign insisting mail-in ballots are problematic but also using mail-in ballots as an excuse to hold debates earlier.
“No one should be fooled: the Trump campaign’s new position is a debate distraction,” O’Malley Dillon wrote. “The Trump position seems to be saying that he will debate if he can pick the moderators: clearly the President, who largely conducts interviews only with favorable news outlets, is afraid of facing questions from a neutral moderator. The Trump campaign proposal for elaborate negotiations is merely an effort to dodge fair, even-handed debates.”
The dates for the debates already planned by the commission are Sept. 29, Oct. 15, and Oct. 22. A Vice-Presidential debate is planned for October 7.
“During his primary campaign, Vice President Biden welcomed direct questions from uncommitted voters on a frequent basis, and we think it is time that President Trump faced such questioning himself,” she wrote. “We know that voters have many, many questions for the President.”
This was at The Washington Post.
See also The Hill.