Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has delivered her opinion on President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump’s two newly scheduled debates.
The California Democrat told reporters on Wednesday that she “would never recommend going onstage with Donald Trump, but [Biden] has decided that’s what he wants to do.”
Pelosi said she would prefer each candidate do “town hall meetings” instead to “challenge them with questions about the future.”
She also endorsed the suggested format of the two debates, details that haven’t been fully ironed out. The debates are scheduled to take place on June 27 on CNN and on Sept. 10 on ABC. Trump agreed to a debate on Fox News on Oct. 2, but the Biden campaign has declined it.
Jen O’Malley Dillon, Biden’s campaign chairwoman, accused Trump of “playing games with debates: complaining about the rules, breaking those rules, pulling out at the last minute, or not showing up at all — which he’s done repeatedly in all three cycles he’s run for president.”
Pelosi justified her opinion by saying Trump previously used tactics during debates that didn’t meet “the dignity of the office.”
“I think he was stalking Hillary Clinton,” Pelosi said in reference to the 2016 presidential debates. “He wasn’t professional, he wasn’t presidential, he wasn’t meeting the dignity of the office.”
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Biden and Trump agreed to two debates separate from those proposed by the Commission on Presidential Debates. Those debates were scheduled to take place later this year.
Many were surprised by Biden’s willingness to debate, but it comes as the president lags behind Trump in several swing-state polls and nationally.
