Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki predicted that former President Donald Trump may bail from the debates with President Joe Biden after agreeing to most of the guidelines set by the Biden campaign.
Biden and Trump agreed to two debates on Wednesday after Biden issued guidelines that he would accept to face off against the former president. Psaki told the Pod Save America podcast on Wednesday that she is “still a skeptic” that the pair will debate and predicted how she thinks Trump could back out.
“Trump could certainly say, ‘I never agreed to those specifics in the letter,’ and he probably will, and that’s how this all falls apart, even though he’s basically said, ‘I would debate him anytime,'” Psaki said.
She also said the move to be forthright with guidelines for the conditions Biden would accept and to challenge Trump with a video was an “interesting play” but also put the Trump campaign “on their back feet” in having to agree to the stipulations quickly.
“I think, internally, they knew that at some point, this is going to hit a head, and they were either going to be ahead of it or be responding to Trump,” Psaki said.
“So it was smart in that sense. I think it was also smart that they put out this letter of their criteria, which basically — I mean, none of this is on the level, this entire election in many ways, in terms of how Trump is operating — but it did put the Trump team on their back feet where they had to just agree to that. If they tried to litigate things on there, they would have looked a little weak,” she added.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The first debate between Biden and Trump is scheduled for June 27 on CNN, while the second debate is scheduled for Sept. 10 on ABC. The Biden campaign agreed to a vice presidential debate in either July or August on CBS, but the Trump campaign has not said whether it agrees.
The debates are scheduled to be the earliest televised debates for a presidential election, which is on Nov. 5 this year.
