There’s a report just out that suggests Trump is considering whether or not to skip the 2020 general election debates entirely because he doesn’t trust the debate commission:
THE HILL – President Trump has been discussing with his campaign advisers whether or not to participate in the general election debates in 2020, two people close to the situation told The New York Times.
According to the sources, Trump doesn’t trust the Commission on Presidential Debates, the nonprofit organization that puts on the debates. Specifically, Trump is apprehensive of who will be chosen by the organization to moderate the debates, the Times reports.
Trump’s campaign reportedly declined to comment on what their plan was for the debates at a state-of-the-race campaign briefing in Arlington, Va.
I’m sure Trump would be heavily criticized for a move like this, but I’m not so sure it would be all the damaging to Trump, especially if someone like Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders wins the nomination.
But I think this could also be Trump signaling to the Commission on Presidential Debates that he won’t play ball unless he feels it will be completely non-partisan. In other words, Trump may be creating leverage to use next fall in order to right any wrongs he felt like happened in 2016.
At this point, we’re so far away from 2020 general election debates that this isn’t really even an issue. So we’ll see what happens in the future with this.