Joe Biden’s presidential campaign said theories that he might skip the presidential debates are not grounded in reality and suggested that it is little more than a conservative conspiracy theory.
“Donald Trump and his allies at Fox News have decided an imaginary controversy about debates will be their latest attempt to distract Americans from the president’s disastrous response to the coronavirus, which has cost 150,000 Americans their lives and left millions jobless,” Trump spokesman T.J. Ducklo said in a statement to CNN.
“This is not a mystery,” Ducklo said. “The debate commission has invited both candidates to participate in three debates. Joe Biden has accepted. Donald Trump has not. Mystery solved.”
Conservative hosts including Tucker Carlson of Fox News and syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh have theorized that the Democratic presidential nominee, who is notorious for stumbling over his words, will back out of a one-on-one televised exchange of talking points. The Wall Street Journal editorial board joined the speculation on Monday.
Several left-leaning commentators have also suggested that Biden skip out on the debates.
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman suggested last month that Biden should not debate Trump unless the president agrees to terms such as live fact-checking. Clinton administration press secretary Joe Lockhart said recently that Biden should skip the debates because of Trump’s lies. Journalist Elizabeth Drew wrote in the New York Times on Monday that the debates should be scrapped altogether.
Biden has said several times that he “can hardly wait” to debate Trump.
“I’m going to beat him like a drum,” Biden said in February, and he repeated the sentiment in June.
Trump’s campaign has asked for more than three debates, including one that takes place before early voting starts in some states. Biden’s campaign is against the expansion, saying that the Trump campaign is hoping to pick the moderators for the debate.
Trump’s new stance is a stark contrast from December, when the New York Times reported that Trump was considering skipping debates because of his disagreements with the commission on how the 2016 debates against Hillary Clinton were handled. During the 2016 Republican primary cycle, Trump skipped a presidential debate when he was polling ahead of the rest of the crowded primary field.
