The Trump campaign on Thursday condemned the Presidential Debate Commission for trying to change the agreed-on debate rules for the second and third presidential debates after the contentious first debate on Tuesday.
“Rather than a cross-section, this group very much comes across as what you might see at an evening gala at the Metropolitan Club in DC,” Senior Trump Campaign Adviser Jason Miller said in a call with reporters. “For the most part, these are permanent swamp monsters that care more about helping themselves out.”
Miller noted that the Trump campaign did not want any changes to the existing debate format but that former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign did.
“There shouldn’t be any changes, we do not want any changes, this is purely the Biden camp and their allies on the CPD,” Miller said.
The campaign said that some of the changes requested by the Biden campaign during a meeting with the debate commission on Wednesday included opening and closing statements, directing questions from the moderator to each candidate, and eliminating open discussion from 11 minutes to “almost nothing.”
“The mute button issue did come up,” the official confirmed.
Miller also took a shot at the first debate’s moderator, Fox News reporter Chris Wallace.
“In fairness to Chris Wallace … I got to give credit for where credit is due, Chris did finish second I believe in the debate after President Trump ahead of Joe Biden,” he said.
Miller said that the commission picked the moderator and the questions and expressed concern that they suddenly wanted to change the format.
“We don’t want any changes. We think President Trump did absolutely fantastic and we’re looking forward to participating in the second or third debate,” he said.
The president has long been skeptical of the debate commission, dismissing them as a bunch of “Trump Haters and Never Trumpers” in 2019.
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