Clinton Campaign Agrees to Debates, Wonders if ‘Donald Trump Is Going to Show Up’

GOP Nominee Falsely Claimed Democrats Were ‘Rigging’ Debates

Hillary Clinton’s campaign has announced the Democratic nominee will attend all three scheduled presidential debates, and challenged the Republican nominee to do so as well. Donald Trump last month complained about the schedule of the presidential debates, and even went so far as to lie that the NFL sent him a letter calling the schedule “ridiculous.” The NFL issued a statement saying they in fact had not sent Trump a letter about the debates.

“Secretary Clinton looks forward to participating in all three presidential debates scheduled by the independent debate commission,” Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta said in a statement Monday night, ABC News reports. “The only issue now is whether Donald Trump is going to show up,” he added. 

The debate schedule is controlled by an independent commission, the Commission on Presidential Debates, which says that both parties greed to the debate schedule a year ago, and there is almost no way for debates to not interfere with sporting events, which was Trump’s complaint.

“Well, I’ll tell you what I don’t like. It’s against two NFL games,” Trump told ABC News. “I got a letter from the NFL saying, ‘This is ridiculous.’ Why are the debates against — because the NFL doesn’t want to go against the debates. Because the debates are going to be pretty massive, from what I understand, OK?”

Podesta made sure to draw a line in the sand against Trump, too.

“It is concerning that the Trump campaign is already engaged in shenanigans around these debates,” he said. “It is not clear if he is trying to avoid debates, or merely toying with the press to create more drama. Either way, our campaign is not interested in playing along with a debate about debates or bargaining around them.”

 

Image by Disney | ABC Television Group via Flickr and a CC license