President Trump’s campaign is requesting “written confirmation” that Joe Biden (D) will participate in the three in-person presidential debates this fall following last week’s remark from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who told reporters that there should not be any debates between the two.
The Speaker became the latest high profile Democrat to discourage Biden from participating in the upcoming presidential debates, predicting them to be nothing more than an “exercise in skullduggery.”
“I wouldn’t legitimize a conversation with him nor a debate in terms of the presidency of the United States,” she said.
Her remarks prompted the Trump campaign to send another letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates, requesting “written confirmation” from the Biden campaign that the former vice president will, in fact, participate in the in-person debates.
“The public discussion of cancelling the debate schedule should not be allowed to continue unchecked,” Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani wrote in the August 31 letter.
“Written assurance of Joe Biden’s attendance at debates is important because we have seen this act before,” he continued, citing “numerous instances of Biden saying one thing about a given topic in public, only to have his campaign come behind him and clean up his statements after the fact.”
“While he may verbally give vague assertions of his intentions, there is no way of knowing what his handlers truly have planned for him,” Giuliani continued.
“Presidential debates are too vital to the dissemination of information to voters to leave their very existence subject to the whims of political consultants pulling Joe Biden’s strings,” he added.
He also renewed the Trump campaign’s request to either add a fourth presidential debate prior to September 4 or move an existing debate to an earlier date, attributing the request to “the early voting calendar in many states and increased attention to absentee-by-mail voting and other early voting options.”
Additionally, Giuliani requested the commission to provide a “formal, detailed plan for in-person debates in the event that location hosts withdraw because of the coronavirus or other reasons.”
“Without this sort of detailed information, we remain convinced that Biden will retreat to the safety of his remote video link, where he can rely on handlers, a teleprompter, or notes positioned near the camera as he clearly did on CNN last week,” the former New York City mayor said.
He concluded:
We can’t believe we have to say this, but the people should hear from the candidates for president side-by-side before votes are cast. With Joe Biden’s hastily-planned private plane excursion to Pennsylvania this week, it is clear that he is reacting to sliding poll numbers by leaving his basement, at least for one day. If Joe Biden’s handlers are now issuing day passes for the candidate, it stands to reason that they could let him out to stand on stage with President Trump before a sizeable portion of voters begin to cast their ballots.
As he did in a similar August 6 letter to the commission, Giuliani CC’d Joe Biden (D) and identified “basement” as his address.
Biden returned to his basement on Tuesday following Monday’s rare day on the campaign trail in Pittsburgh.
The presidential debates are currently scheduled for September 29, October 15, and October 22.
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