Trump suggests he won't agree to rule changes at next debates with Biden
Xinhua
1601599162000

debate.jpg

Photo taken in Arlington, Virginia, the United States on Sept. 29, 2020 shows C-SPAN 2 live stream of U.S. President Donald Trump (L) and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden speaking during their first debate in the 2020 presidential race. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

President Donald Trump's remarks came a day after the Commission on Presidential Debates said it's considering changes to the format of the next two debates to "ensure a more orderly discussion of the issues."

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump suggested on Thursday that he won't agree to any rule changes at the remaining two debates with 2020 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

"Why would I allow the Debate Commission to change the rules for the second and third Debates when I easily won last time?" Trump tweeted, while several polls showed that most viewers think Biden did better in the first 2020 presidential debate.

The tweet came a day after the Commission on Presidential Debates said it's considering changes to the format of the next two debates to "ensure a more orderly discussion of the issues" amid wide criticism that the first Trump-Biden matchup was messy and unpresidential.

On the stage in Cleveland, Ohio on Tuesday night, Trump interrupted Biden on nearly every topic he was talking about and mocked his intellect and performance in college, while the former U.S. vice president hit back by calling his opponent a "liar" and a "clown" and told him to "shut up."

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said during a White House press briefing on Thursday that Trump "wants to debate, he plans on being at the debate, but he wants the rules to be fair and wants a fair exchange and doesn't want rules that cover for a certain candidate's inability to perform well."

In a press call later, Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller said Trump will participate in the next two debates against Biden and that "there should not be any changes" to the rules that have been agreed to. Biden's campaign has committed to attending the events.

Biden on Wednesday criticized Trump's behavior during the debate, saying that changes are needed.

"I just hope there's a way in which the debate commission can control the ability of us to answer the question without interruption," Biden told reporters.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday that she doesn't think Biden should debate Trump again.

"I myself did not think that Joe Biden should dignify debate with the president who has no commitment to fact, evidence, data, demeans the office he holds," the California Democrat said during an interview with Bloomberg TV. "I never thought he shouldn't do it because I didn't think he would do well. I thought he shouldn't do it because I thought something like this could happen."

The second 2020 presidential debate will be held on Oct. 15 at Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami, Florida, Trump's home state and a battleground for this year's presidential election.

That debate will take the form of a town meeting, in which questions will be posed by citizens from the South Florida area. The candidates will have two minutes to respond to each question and there will be an additional minute for the moderator to facilitate further discussion.

Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, will host the third Trump-Biden debate on Oct. 22, whose format is said to be identical to the first encounter.

There will also be a vice presidential debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Biden's running mate, U.S. Senator from California Kamala Harris, at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah on Oct. 7.

Election Day falls on Nov. 3 this year, while early voting, either in-person or by mail, has started in some states. According to the RealClearPolitics polling average, Biden leads Trump by 7.2 percentage points nationally and 3.5 points in top battleground states, as of Thursday.