Following Nancy Pelosi’s comments about how Joe Biden should not go up against President Trump in a debate, Trump’s campaign is asking Biden if he will even be showing up at all.
Pelosi said, “I wouldn’t legitimize a conversation with him nor a debate in terms of the presidency of the United States.”
They have requested “written confirmation” that Biden will be participating.
In a letter to Biden’s campaign, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani wrote, “The public discussion of canceling the debate schedule should not be allowed to continue unchecked.”
“Written assurance of Joe Biden’s attendance at debates is important because we have seen this act before,” he continued in the letter, stating “numerous instances of Biden saying one thing about a given topic in public, only to have his campaign come behind him and clean up his statements after the fact.”
Giuliani added that “while he may verbally give vague assertions of his intentions, there is no way of knowing what his handlers truly have planned for him.”
“Presidential debates are too vital to the dissemination of information to voters to leave their very existence subject to the whims of political consultants pulling Joe Biden’s strings,” he said.
He also renewed the Trump campaign’s request to either add a fourth presidential debate prior to September 4 or move an existing debate to an earlier date, attributing the request to “the early voting calendar in many states and increased attention to absentee-by-mail voting and other early voting options.”
Additionally, Giuliani requested the commission to provide a “formal, detailed plan for in-person debates in the event that location hosts withdraw because of the coronavirus or other reasons.”
“Without this sort of detailed information, we remain convinced that Biden will retreat to the safety of his remote video link, where he can rely on handlers, a teleprompter, or notes positioned near the camera as he clearly did on CNN last week,” the former New York City mayor said.
“We can’t believe we have to say this, but the people should hear from the candidates for president side-by-side before votes are cast,” said Giuliani. “With Joe Biden’s hastily-planned private plane excursion to Pennsylvania this week, it is clear that he is reacting to sliding poll numbers by leaving his basement, at least for one day.”
He concluded, “If Joe Biden’s handlers are now issuing day passes for the candidate, it stands to reason that they could let him out to stand on stage with President Trump before a sizeable portion of voters begin to cast their ballots.”
