Fox News Opinion
August 6, 2020
By Fred Fleitz
If Biden refused to debate Trump, America’s enemies and adversaries would interpret this as a sign of weakness
There are growing calls by leading Democrats and liberal journalists that Joe Biden skip presidential debates with President Trump this fall.
Joe Lockhart, a White House press spokesman for President Clinton, urged Biden not to debate because he is way ahead in the polls and Trump would not follow debate rules or tell the truth in the debates. Liberal journalist Elizabeth Drew recently called for scrapping the debates. The left-wing New Republic has called for canceling them “forever.”
Democratic strategist Zac Petkanas said in a July 27 tweet that President Trump “is not a legitimate candidate” and therefore doesn’t deserve a debate.
New York Times op-ed columnist Thomas Friedman wants to put impossible conditions on Trump-Biden debates such as requiring the president to first release his tax returns and having a “real-time fact-checking team” at the debates.
It is very common for candidates running for elected office to skip or limit debates when they are ahead. But no one believes this is the reason why more and more Biden supporters are calling on him not to debate Trump. The real reason is growing concern about Biden’s age and mental decline.
At 77, Joe Biden would be the oldest person ever elected president. Over the last few months, he has campaigned out of his basement and taken very few questions from the press. Biden has refused to do sit-down interviews with independent or hostile journalists.
The interviews and speeches Biden has done increasingly have been marred by embarrassing gaffes suggesting mental confusion.
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