Former Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) late Friday alleged that the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) has no Trump supporters, hinting that the commission is “biased.”
“It’s full of Never Trumpers and it’s full of swamp creatures,” Perrine said. She added that Trump plans to hold a campaign rally on Oct. 15 instead of attending the scheduled presidential debate, which the CPD recently announced would be held virtually.
“As of right now the president has been very clear he is not interested in doing a virtual debate and instead he will hold a rally,” she said.
The CPD was established in 1987 to ensure “that general election debates between or among the leading candidates for the offices of President and Vice President of the United States are a permanent part of the electoral process.” The group describes itself as “nonpartisan” and “independent.”
Trump on Thursday said that the CPD’s attempt to make the second presidential debate virtual was to protect Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
“They’re trying to protect Biden. Everybody is,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News on “Mornings with Maria.”
“We have suggested using October 22 and October 29 to hold the final two debates,” Murtaugh said. “It’s time for the biased commission to stop protecting Biden and preventing voters from hearing from the two candidates for president,” he said.
“There’s nothing that says that President Trump and Joe Biden can’t debate together without the overlords at the commission having a say in the matter. We would be glad to debate one-on-one without the commission’s interference,” he added.
CPD Republican co-chair Frank Fahrenkopf told Fox News on Thursday that its initial decision to hold a virtual event was “guided by the medicine.”
“We will be guided by those people advising us, we are not doctors. And as you know, the Cleveland Clinic has been advising us throughout. They went along with this decision,” Fahrenkopf said.
Its decision was driven “not only [by] his [Trump’s] diagnosis and what happened in Cleveland but what’s happened in the White House in the last week or so [with] so many people having to be tested and quarantined,” Fahrenkopf told the outlet on Thursday.
The CPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.