Trump Campaign Says Debate Commission Biased Against President

(Bloomberg) -- Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien said the non-partisan commission that organizes presidential debates is biased against Donald Trump, and criticized changes the group is considering for the next two events to limit the president’s interruptions, including a mute button.

“I sincerely hope that these members leave their anti-Trump beliefs at the door,” Stepien told reporters on a conference call Thursday.

But the Trump campaign officials did not threaten to boycott the debates if changes are made to their structures. “President Trump fully plans on participating and winning both the second and third debates,” senior adviser Jason Miller said on the call.

The Trump campaign’s debate negotiator, Max Miller, said on the call that Joe Biden’s campaign had suggested allowing opening and closing statements, addressing questions to specific candidates and limiting “open debate” portions of the events, in addition to letting the moderator mute candidates.

Miller said the Biden campaign had suggested but not demanded the changes during a meeting Wednesday with the Commission on Presidential Debates.

Biden, speaking to reporters in Wilmington on Thursday said, “Yes, I’ll participate in the next debate.”

His spokesman, Andrew Bates said earlier: “Since June, we have consistently said we would participate in all three debates, under rules that the CPD established. Only the Trump campaign has been erratic and chaotic in their approach to this, demanding control over the selection of moderators, changes in the dates of the debates, an ear canal inspection rule, and all sorts of other insanity.”

Before the first debate, Trump called for the two candidates to be drug-tested and inspected for hidden earpieces. Biden called the demands ridiculous.

Earlier Thursday, Trump suggested in a tweet that he wouldn’t accept rule changes for the second of three debates, scheduled to take place on Oct. 15 in Miami, in a townhall format.

“Why would I allow the Debate Commission to change the rules for the second and third Debates when I easily won last time?” Trump said on Twitter.

Scientific polls following the first debate on Tuesday showed that viewers believed Biden performed better. The event -- which saw moderator Chris Wallace repeatedly beseech the president to cease interrupting, and both candidates trade personal insults -- was widely panned as chaotic.

“I never dreamt that it would go off the tracks the way it did,” Wallace, a Fox News anchor, told the New York Times on Wednesday.

Biden said Wednesday he was “looking forward” to additional debates but would not “speculate” on possible rules changes.

Biden said Thursday he might go along with changes “as long as we have an opportunity to respond to the question of the people in the audience. I think it’s appropriate that when a person, a constituent, someone considering how they’re going to vote this year, when they ask a question, of whomever they ask of that question, gets an opportunity to answer it fully.”

White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said earlier Thursday that Trump “plans on being” at the next debate.

“But he wants the rules to be fair and a fair exchange and doesn’t want rules that cover for a certain candidate’s inability to perform well,” she said.

Stepien accused several members of the debate commission’s board of directors as harboring bias against Trump, including two of the three co-chairs, Frank Fahrenkopf and Dorothy Ridings.

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