President Trump has been working the refs ahead of Thursday’s presidential debate by attacking the format and NBC News moderator Kristen Welker, while signaling he plans to press Democratic nominee Joseph R. Biden on his son Hunter’s overseas business deals.
The final showdown of the tumultuous presidential campaign comes after a record-breaking number of early voters have been cast, and with polls showing Mr. Biden in the driver’s seat less than two weeks out from Election Day.
For Mr. Trump, the debate in Nashville offers him a chance to change the narrative that he’s leading the GOP into an Election Day “bloodbath.”
Mr. Trump and his allies have accused the Commission on Presidential Debates and the moderator of being biased. They claim that what had been planned as a debate over foreign policy has been limited as a way to help Mr. Biden avoid talking about his son’s business deals in Ukraine and China.
“The debate commission has been doing Joe Biden’s bidding from the very start, and so if he has to, the president will be the one to press Joe Biden on the fact that his son was selling access to him to the highest bidder,” Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said. “If Trump doesn’t press Biden on getting a financial set-aside from a communist Chinese energy company, who will?”
Mr. Biden, in an interview with WISN-12 News in Wisconsin, said the accusations that his family profited from his name while he served as vice president are “garbage.”
“It is the last-ditch effort in this desperate campaign to smear me and my family,” Mr. Biden said. “The vast majority of the intelligence people have come out and said there’s no basis at all.”
Mr. Trump, meanwhile, told reporters Wednesday the debate commission’s decision to mute the microphones is “very unfair” and said Ms. Welker is “a very biased person.”
Doug Heye, a GOP strategist, said the attacks Mr. Trump and his team are leveling at the debate commission and the moderator are intended to lower expectations.
“If he were to lose the debate then it is not his fault — someone was unfair to him,” Mr. Heye said. “Politicians are never eager to accept blame for anything, but Trump put that at warp factor 10.”
On Wednesday, former Sen. John Danforth, a member of the board of directors for the Commission on Presidential Debates, said the Trump campaign’s attempts to undermine the debates are dangerous.
“It is not the honor of the commission that is at stake here,” Mr. Danforth, Missouri Republican, said in a Washington Post op-ed. “What is at stake is Americans’ belief in the fairness of our presidential debates and, in turn, the presidential election. When that faith is undermined, the damage to our country is incalculable.”
The first debate quickly went off the rails after Mr. Trump repeatedly interrupted Mr. Biden, frustrating moderator and Fox News host Chris Wallace’s attempts to keep the face-off on track.
The scheduled Oct. 15 debate was scrapped after Mr. Trump contracted the coronavirus and refused to take part in a virtual debate.
But that was not before Mr. Trump accused the debate moderator Steve Scully of having partisan leanings.
Mr. Trump later rejoiced when the C-SPAN host was suspended for lying about his Twitter account getting hacked after he acted “out of frustration” and posted a note to former White House Press Secretary Anthony Scaramucci: “@Scaramucci should I respond to trump.”
The Commission on Presidential Debates announced this week that the candidate’s microphones will be muted to enforce the rules that the Trump and Biden campaign previously agreed to as a way to mitigate interruptions.
Mr. Trump has labeled Ms. Welker a “radical left Democrat” and accused her of deleting her Twitter account to hide her political leanings.
Ms. Welker’s account was deactivated for a brief time after Mr. Scully was suspended.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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