Unable to gain traction with voters with his usual sales pitch, President Donald Trump is trying another trick: Attack the presidential debates schedule.
Trump on Thursday complained that his first presidential debate is a month before the election and demanded it is moved up because of early voting.
“How can voters be sending in Ballots starting, in some cases, one month before the First Presidential Debate,” Trump tweeted. “Move the First Debate up. A debate, to me, is a Public Service. Joe Biden and I owe it to the American People!”
Trump’s tweet came after his attorney Rudy Giuliani launched a similar attack on the presidential debates during an interview on Fox News.
Giuliani appeared Thursday morning on “Fox & Friends,” where he agreed with host Brian Kilmeade that the first debate should be moved up from Sept. 29 because many states will have opened up early voting.
“If they don’t do it, it really undermines the rationale for this Commission [on Presidential Debates],” Giuliani said. “They really have to go. I mean, what about the right to know?”
“Those people have a right to know,” he added. “Why are we having these debates? We’re having these debates to inform the electorate. We might as well have them after the election. This is like sticking to a rationale that’s 30 years old that has no application to today, and it undercuts the entire mission of the commission. That usually means, you know, unless they can figure out how to become modern, they should get out of this business and Congress should take over.”
Watch Giuliani’s interview and Trump’s response below:
On Fox & Friends, Rudy Giuliani says the Commission on Presidential Debates should be abolished if they refuse the Trump campaign's request to add a fourth debate or move the first one up. pic.twitter.com/OANirPptBQ
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) August 6, 2020
How can voters be sending in Ballots starting, in some cases, one month before the First Presidential Debate. Move the First Debate up. A debate, to me, is a Public Service. Joe Biden and I owe it to the American People!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 6, 2020
