Presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s campaign has agreed to three general election debates this fall, blasting the fact that Team Trump has asked for more debates as an “effort to change the subject” and “create a distracting ‘debate about debates.’”
Team Trump Says 3 Debates Are Not Enough
Jen O’Malley Dillon, Joe Biden’s campaign manager, sent a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates detailing her expectations for the upcoming debates.
“While I know no formal debate invitation will be issued to Joe Biden or Donald Trump until after the Party Conventions and the CPD’s invitation process, I wanted to set forth our views on how the Commission should proceed with planning for the fall debates,” Dillon wrote in a letter obtained by Fox News.
The Biden campaign has agreed to 3 debates with President Trump. Get your popcorn, folks!
— JT Lewis (@thejtlewis) June 22, 2020
“First, once formally invited, Vice President Biden will accept and participate in the Commission’s planned Presidential candidates’ debates for September 29, October 15, and October 22; his running mate will participate in the Vice Presidential candidates’ debate set for October 7,” Dillon wrote.
“We hope that President Trump and Vice President Pence will similarly indicate their willingness to participate,” she added.
After tonight’s speech by @realDonaldTrump Basement Biden will try every excuse to get out of debates.
— Rudy W. Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) June 21, 2020
Biden Campaign Manager: Trump ‘trailing badly in the polls’ and is ‘desperate’
“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,” she continued.
Dillon also wrote that Trump is “trailing badly in the polls” and is “desperate to change the subject from his failed leadership of the country.”
“We are seeing reports that he has his own proposal for debates—after having said, just six months ago, that he might not want to participate at all in planned debates,” she wrote. “No one should be fooled: the Trump campaign’s new position is a debate distraction.”
RELATED: Trump Warns Of ‘Rigged’ 2020 Election – ‘Scandal Of Our Times’
There should be 4 presidential debates. 3 between Trump and Biden and 1 between Biden and Biden.
— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) June 20, 2020
Dillon Wants Second Debate to be a ‘Town Hall’ Format
Dillon said Trump “seems to be saying that he will debate if he can pick the moderators,” while arguing he 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,” Dillon said.
Dillon also said the second presidential debate should be a “Town Hall” format “as it has for every debate cycle since 1992” and that the commission make “provisions for citizen participation in that debate even if COVID remains a concern.”