Donald Trump has been trying to wriggle out of debating Hillary Clinton for months now. In July, the Republican presidential nominee insisted that the schedule be changed so that the debates are not up against any Monday Night Football games. Trump even claimed that the NFL commissioner sent him a letter about scheduling — a claim the league has denied. Last month, the Art of the Deal “author” insisted that he would attempt to negotiate the “conditions” before committing to any debates.
On Monday, Trump gave a half-hour phone interview to CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” during which he insisted the debate moderators will be out to get him after Matt Lauer‘s performance during NBC’s Commander-In-Chief forum last week:
“As far as the debates are concerned, the system is being gamed because everybody said that I won the debate, you know, the so-called forum that your group put on. But they all said I won and that Matt Lauer was easy on me. Well, he wasn’t. He was — I thought he was very professional, I have to be honest. I think he’s been treated very unfairly, but they all said that I won, and what they’re doing is they’re gaming the system so that when I go into the debate, I’m gonna get — be treated very, very unfairly by the moderators.”
Trump’s solution? Ditch the moderators completely, and “let Hillary and I sit there and just debate.” You know, like the Lincoln-Douglas debates, only with more winning.
“The fact is that they’re gaming the system, and I think, maybe, we should have no moderator. Let Hillary and I sit there and just debate because I think the system is being rigged, so it’s gonna be a very unfair debate, and I can see it happening right now because everyone’s saying that he was soft on Trump. Well, now the new person’s gonna try to be really hard on Trump just to show, you know, the establishment what he can do. So I think it’s very unfair what they’re doing. So I think we should have a debate with no moderators — just Hillary and I sitting there talking.”
CNN’s Jeffrey Lord seemed to love the idea of moderator-less debates. “I think it was [Fox News host] Chris Wallace — he’s one of the moderators — who said he’s not going to sit there and be a fact checker,” he said. “I think that’s up to the American people.” Plus, according to Lord, most fact-checkers are liberals anyway. “They have a bias going into it. So, I really don’t count them much as fact checkers,” he said.
The debate commission announced which journalists will preside over the debates earlier this month. The first presidential debate will be moderated by NBC’s Lester Holt, the second by ABC’s Martha Raddatz and CNN’s Anderson Cooper, and the third by Fox News’ Chris Wallace. The vice presidential debate will be hosted by CBS News’ Elaine Quijano.