Trump repeats campaign’s calls to move up first 2020 debate with Biden – NBC News

President Donald Trump on Thursday called for the first presidential debate to be moved to an earlier date so that it occurs before mail-in voting begins in some states.

“How can voters be sending in Ballots starting, in some cases, one month before the First Presidential Debate,” Trump tweeted. “Move the First Debate up. A debate, to me, is a Public Service. Joe Biden and I owe it to the American People!”

The tweet marked the latest request by the president and his campaign to make changes to the fall debate schedule.

The Commission on Presidential Debates — the organization that has run presidential debates since 1988 — has scheduled three debate this fall: Sept. 29 at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, Oct. 15 at Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami and Oct. 22 at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. Two of the debate venues have already had to change due to the coronavirus pandemic. The University of Notre Dame in Indiana withdrew from hosting the first debate, and the University of Michigan dropped out of hosting the second debate.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, many states have expanded their use of mail-in voting — a measure intended to keep people from congregating at the polls and risking further spreading the virus. The moves have created an extended voting season that could have political ramifications for a president who is currently trailing in the polls.

The first ballots of the 2020 general election will be on their way to voters by early September. North Carolina, a battleground state, begins mailing absentee ballots to registered voters who requested them on Sept. 4, 60 days before the Nov. 3 election. Pennsylvania and Kentucky will send out requested mail ballots as early as Sept. 14, with several other key states following the same week, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Trump campaign asked the commission for a fourth debate to be scheduled earlier than the first Sept. 29 event.

In a letter to the CPD, the Trump campaign argued an earlier date is needed between the president and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden before early voting in any states started.

The letter also requested that one of the currently scheduled debates be moved earlier if the CPD wouldn’t add an additional debate and included a list of journalists and commentators that they would prefer to moderate the debates. The CPD has not yet announced who would moderate any of the presidential debates, and they have not yet responded to the Trump team’s latest ask.

Biden campaign officials repeatedly rejected the request.

“We have said all along, including in a letter to the commission in June, that Joe Biden will appear on the dates that the commission selected and in the locations they chose. Donald Trump has not, continually trying to insert his choice of friendly moderators, now including one who just published an op-ed offering ‘the case’ for Trump’s reelection,” Biden campaign spokesperson Andrew Bates said in response to the Trump campaign.

Biden campaign senior adviser Symone Sanders reiterated the point during a virtual fundraiser later Wednesday.

“Let me be very clear. The Presidential Commission on Debates has set… three debates this year. Vice President Biden has already committed to all three of those debates,” she said. “It is the Trump campaign that has yet to fully commit to the debate.”