Biden commits to three debates, rejects Trump call for a fourth
Former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign on Monday confirmed the presumptive Democratic nominee will take part in three scheduled presidential debates, but dismissed the call from President Donald Trump’s advisers for a fourth debate as a “distraction.”
Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani requested the additional debate in a call last week with Frank Fahrenkopf, the co-chair of the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates. They argued that because of the coronavirus pandemic and the push for expanded mail-in-voting, many ballots could be sent before the first scheduled debate takes place.
“We want fair debates,” Parscale said in the call, according to The Associated Press. “We want them sooner and we want a bigger schedule. We also don’t want them up against football games competing for viewers.”
Trump’s team also suggested allowing each campaign to help select the moderators, including the ability to veto the selections.
“Our position is straightforward and clear: Biden will accept the Commission’s debates, on the Commission’s dates, under the Commission’s established format and the Commission’s independent choice of moderators,” said Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon in a letter to the debate commission. “Any ‘debate proposals’ in lieu of that are just an effort to change the subject, avoid debates, or create a distracting ‘debate about debates.’ ”
The first debate is scheduled for Sept. 29 at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, the second Oct. 15 at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami, and the third for a week later, Oct. 22, at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn. The University of Michigan had planned to host the second debate, but the school announced Tuesday that it would not host due to coronavirus concerns.
In December, Parscale had threatened that the president would not take part in the debates because Parscale believed members of the debate commission were hostile to the president and would select unfriendly moderators.
Biden has avoided live campaign events since the pandemic began in order to avoid the risk of spreading the coronavirus. Trump’s team has painted that decision as an effort to keep Biden “in the basement” in order to avoid gaffes. After Biden’s campaign rejected the idea of a fourth debate, Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh said the Biden campaign was “afraid” to send the Democrat out in unscripted situations, noting it’s been more than 80 days since Biden held a news conference.
“An earlier and longer debate schedule is necessary so Americans can see the clear difference between President Trump’s vibrant leadership and Biden’s confused meandering,” Murtaugh said in a statement.
O’Malley Dillon said the Trump campaign was trying to create a controversy over the debates to distract from the fact that the president “is trailing badly in the polls, and is desperate to change the subject from his failed leadership of the country.”
“The Trump campaign’s new position is a debate distraction,” she said. “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.”
O’Malley Dillon asked the debate commission to confirm that there would be plans in place to mitigate the risk of spreading the coronavirus. She said there was no reason the candidates “cannot meet for debates with appropriate safety and social distancing measures.”
She also said she hoped the commission would find a way to make the second debate a town hall event, as it has been in each election since 1992, despite the threat of COVID-19.