President Trump accused the Democratic Party of using the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to avoid having Joe Biden go up against him in the 2020 presidential debates.
“Well, I hope so. I know they want to get out of the debate,” Trump told the Washington Examiner’s Salena Zito in an interview during the president’s trip to the Owens & Minor Inc. distribution center in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Thursday. “They’re saying they won’t be able to debate because of COVID-19.”
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“They said that they won’t be able to debate. Well, you know, I’d like to debate, as you know. I did well in the debates, or I wouldn’t be standing here. But no, I heard there’s a rumor — I don’t know if you guys have been seeing this — they don’t want to debate because of [the coronavirus], but COVID-19 is not the reason to not debate.”
While Trump accused the Biden campaign and his party of trying to dodge the debates, the former vice president himself has said differently.
“I’m ready to debate President Trump on Zoom or Skype anytime he wants,” Biden said in an interview with radio host Enrique Santos that was released last month.
Conversely, Trump’s reelection campaign has already warned that the president could skip the debates in the fall if he feels the moderators, who are selected by the Commission on Presidential Debates, are not “fair.”
Additionally, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel argued that there should be a litmus test for an outlet to be allowed to host a debate: It must have covered the sexual harassment and sexual assault allegation against Biden. The campaign declined to say if the president would skip a debate solely on the basis that it was hosted by a network that failed to meet the bar McDaniel set.
The Biden campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
