House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters on Thursday that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden should avoid debating President Trump ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
“I don’t think there should be any debates,” the California Democrat told reporters.
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Three presidential debates are scheduled between Sep. 29 and Oct. 22, and Biden has committed to participating, but a growing chorus of Democrats have suggested that he skip going head-to-head with Trump on the debate stage.
Trump’s past debate behavior and lies in office, Pelosi said, are the reason she believes Biden should walk away from the planned debates.
“I do not think that the president of the United States has comported himself in the way that has any association with truth,” Pelosi said. “Evidence, data, and facts. I wouldn’t legitimize a conversation with him, nor a debate in terms of the presidency of the United States.”
Pelosi also cited Trump’s “disgraceful” behavior during the 2016 debates. She accused Trump of “stalking” Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton on the debate stage and said that Trump is bound to misbehave in a round of debates with Biden.
“So, I think that he’ll probably act in a way that is beneath the dignity of the presidency,” Pelosi said. “He does that every day, but I think it will also be little what the debates are supposed to be about. I don’t think that he should dignify that conversation with Donald Trump.”
Within a few minutes on Thursday, Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates shot down Pelosi’s suggestion.
“We certainly agree with Speaker Pelosi on her views of the President’s behavior,” Bates said. “But just as she has powerfully confronted that behavior in the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room, Joe Biden looks forward to doing the same on the debate stage.”
Democratic strategist and former White House press secretary Joe Lockhart told CNN this month that Biden should stay away from the debate stage with Trump, who he said, “will take the truth and destroy it, and Biden will be in the position of correcting him over and over and over again. I don’t think he should give him that platform.”
