Trump floats flouting debate commission: "As president, the debates are up to me"
President Trump is reviving a page from his 2016 campaign playbook, suggesting Monday morning that he might circumvent the Commission on Presidential Debates and do the debates "directly" instead.
Mr. Trump, who skipped a primary debate hosted by Fox News during the 2016 presidential cycle, decried the institution as "stacked with Trump Haters & Never Trumpers." Mr. Trump said he might consider more than three debates, but insisted that "as president, the debates are up to me."
"I look very much forward to debating whoever the lucky person is who stumbles across the finish line in the little watched Do Nothing Democrat Debates. My record is so good on the Economy and all else, including debating, that perhaps I would consider more than 3 debates," the president tweeted in the middle of his Monday morning tweet storm in which he fired off dozens of tweets or retweets.
"The problem is that the so-called Commission on Presidential Debates is stacked with Trump Haters & Never Trumpers. 3 years ago they were forced to publicly apologize for modulating my microphone in the first debate against Crooked Hillary. As President, the debates are up...to me, and there are many options, including doing them directly & avoiding the nasty politics of this very biased Commission. I will make a decision at an appropriate time but in the meantime, the Commission on Presidential Debates is NOT authorized to speak for me (or R's)!"
It wasn't immediately clear what the president meant by suggesting he might engage in the debates "directly." The Trump campaign did not immediately respond for comment.
The Commission on Presidential Debates said the commission's record "is one of fairness, balance, and non-partisanship," and sent the list of three scheduled debates for the 2020 general election.
"The televised general election debates are an important part of our democratic process," the Commission on Presidential Debates said in a statement. "Since 1988, the Commission on Presidential Debates has conducted 30 general election presidential and vice presidential debates. Our record is one of fairness, balance and non-partisanship. As announced on October 11, 2019, CPD has selected four distinguished universities to host the 2020 presidential and vice presidential debates, and those universities are already hard at work on these important civic education forums."
Next year's general election debates are scheduled to take place on September 29 in South Bend, Indiana; October 15 in Ann Arbor, Michigan; and October 22 in Nashville, Tennessee.