Commission on Presidential Debates rejects Trump campaign call for earlier debate

Source: The Hill

The Commission on Presidential Debates is rejecting the Trump campaign’s request to modify the presidential debate schedule so the first debate occurs before states begin early voting.

In a letter to Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s personal attorney, the commission’s three co-chairs said it would stick to its schedule of three, 90-minute debates beginning Sept. 29, after the Trump campaign pushed for a debate to be added or the date for the last debate to be moved up to the beginning of September.

The commission rebuffed the campaign’s argument that the current debate schedule would deprive voters of seeing the candidates debate one another before the first ballots are cast.

“You state that such a debate is necessary because some states begin sending out mail-in ballots before the first scheduled debate. There is a difference between ballots having been issued by a state and those ballots having been cast by voters, who are under no compulsion to return their ballots before the debates,” wrote co-chairs Frank Fahrenkopf, Dorothy Ridings and Kenneth Wollack in the letter to Giuliani Thursday.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/510917-commission-on-presidential-debates-rejects-trump-campaign-call-for