It’s official, former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign has committed to three debates with President Trump before the November election, according to the Washington Post.
“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,” said Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon in a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates.
Last week several top Trump aides, including Rudy Giuliani, began pushing for four presidential debates – and insisted they be held earlier so that early voters can make decisions.
“We want fair debates. We want them sooner, and we want a bigger schedule,” said Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale. “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.”
The Biden camp pounced at the Trump campaign’s rationale for a fourth debate, pointing to the president’s repeated warnings against mail-in ballots, and calling their insistence on more debates a ‘distraction.’
“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,” wrote O’Malley Dillon.
If the Trump and Biden camps agree on a fourth debate, the commission would do ‘everything it can’ to make it happen, according to Frank Fahrenkopf, chairman of the debate commission.