RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel says Biden should be 'disqualified' from 2020 if he doesn't debate Trump
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel gave her two cents on how some Democrats and multiple news outlets such as The New York Times were pushing for former Vice President Joe Biden not to debate President Donald Trump.
Speaking to Fox Business Network’s 'Varney & Company' on Tuesday, McDaniel said Biden was “incoherent at best” and went on to note the "many" gaffes he has made throughout the campaign trail, which he has mostly spent in his basement. She also argued that the 2020 presumptive Democratic nominee should be disqualified from the race if he is unable to participate. “They’re acting as the media arm for the Biden campaign,” McDaniel said of The New York Times. “Biden doesn’t want to debate. He is incoherent at best. We’ve seen many of his gaffes from his basement. They are afraid to put him on a debate stage."
"I just want to say this — I think it is disqualifying," she continued. "If you cannot debate in front of the American people, and make your case as to why you should be president, as to why you should go up against people like Putin or Xi, then you should not be president. And you need to debate. I think if he doesn’t debate, if he doesn’t do all three, he should be disqualified from actually running for president.”
On the other hand, Trump campaign officials have requested an additional debate to be held prior to the three already scheduled for Septe,ber 29, October 15 and 22.
“We want those three and one earlier than the rest,” Tim Murtaugh, Trump’s communications director, told Politico.
“President Trump is looking forward to debating Joe Biden, who is the only one who is being publicly advised to skip debates,” Murtaugh said, alluding to a recent CNN column by former Clinton White House press secretary Joe Lockhart urging the former veep not to debate Trump. “Voters in 16 states will already be casting their early votes before the first debate takes place on September 29th as the schedule stands now. We don’t think it’s too much to ask that Americans get a look at the two candidates side-by-side before voters start voting.”
Trump supporters are raising questions about whether Biden would back out of the debates, citing the Lockhart recommendation and other recent opinion pieces that have suggested the same. However, Biden's campaign has already committed to three presidential debates sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates. “The Trump campaign and their allies have constructed an entirely fictional storyline to distract from Donald Trump’s failure to protect American lives during a once-in-a-generation pandemic, and now they're evidently confused about which lie they’re supposed to be telling,” Biden spokesman T.J. Ducklo said.
“Unlike Donald Trump, Joe Biden has accepted the commission’s invitation for three debates, and looks forward to holding Donald Trump accountable for the worst failure of presidential leadership in modern history," he added.
On July 19, Trump told Fox News' Chris Wallace that Biden would be "crying for mommy" if he were subjected to the same line of questioning the media put him through. "Let Biden sit through an interview like this, he’ll be on the ground crying for mommy. He’ll say 'Mommy, mommy, please take me home,'" the Republican leader quipped.
"Well we’ve asked him for an interview, sir," Wallace replied.
"He can’t do an interview. He’s incompetent," Trump declared.
When asked if he thought the former vice president is senile, the president said he didn't "want to say that." However, he asserted that “to be president, you have to be sharp and tough and so many other things."
"[Biden] doesn’t even come out of his basement," he added.