Report: Trump Campaign Turns Down Biden Request for Debate Breaks: 'Our Guy Doesn't Need Breaks'
President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign has reportedly turned down Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s request for breaks during the first presidential debate Tuesday night.
Biden’s campaign had asked for a pair of breaks, one every 30 minutes, during the 90-minute commercial-free program over the last few weeks, but the Trump campaign has denied the request, according to Fox News.
“Our guy doesn’t need breaks,” a Trump campaign source told Fox.
“He gives 90-minute speeches all the time.”
The source added that there is an ongoing negotiation for Tuesday night’s debate and the upcoming two debates between Biden and Trump.
Trump’s campaign has reportedly asked for a third party to inspect each debater’s ears for electronic devices or transmitters prior to the start of the debate.
New York Post reporter Ebony Bowden tweeted Tuesday that Biden had agreed to the inspection several days ago, but has since backtracked and said he would refuse.
NEW: Joe Biden’s campaign agreed to an inspection for electronic ear pieces at tonight’s debate several days ago but are now declining, a source familiar tells me.
— Ebony Bowden (@ebonybowden) September 29, 2020
Over the weekend, Trump also called for Biden to be drug tested before or after the debate.
“I will be strongly demanding a Drug Test of Sleepy Joe Biden prior to, or after, the Debate on Tuesday night. Naturally, I will agree to take one also,” Trump tweeted.
“His Debate performances have been record setting UNEVEN, to put it mildly. Only drugs could have caused this discrepancy???”
I will be strongly demanding a Drug Test of Sleepy Joe Biden prior to, or after, the Debate on Tuesday night. Naturally, I will agree to take one also. His Debate performances have been record setting UNEVEN, to put it mildly. Only drugs could have caused this discrepancy???
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 27, 2020
During an August interview, Trump talked of having Biden drug tested because of the vastly different performances the former vice president put on during spring debates, arguing that Biden was uncharacteristically on point in his final debate with Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
“It wasn’t that he was Winston Churchill, because he wasn’t,” Trump told the Washington Examiner’s Byron York. “But it was a normal, boring debate.
“I don’t know how he could have been so incompetent in his debate performances and then, all of a sudden, be OK against Bernie.
“My point is, if you go back and watch some of those numerous debates, he was so bad. He wasn’t even coherent. And against Bernie, he was. And we’re calling for a drug test.”
Some say Biden simply goes hot and cold.
“He’s an uneven debate performer,” Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, former acting chair of the Democratic National Committee, told The Washington Post.
“When you think ‘Joe Biden,’ you don’t think, ‘Well, you know, he’s the king of the kings.’”
Fox News reached out to the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates for a response to the campaigns’ requests.
The first debate between Biden and Trump will start at 9 p.m. ET on Tuesday and will be moderated by “Fox News Sunday” anchor Chris Wallace.
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