Former Sen. John Danforth (R-MO), a longtime member of the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), tore into President Donald Trump’s efforts to smear the commission as corrupt and biased on Tuesday.
Danforth laid out in a Washington Post op-ed how Trump and his GOP allies’ claims that the CPD is out to sabotage the President in favor of Democratic candidate Joe Biden are “just wrong.”
The CPD member pointed out that the commission’s decision to change the second debate to a virtual town hall, which prompted Trump to accuse the CPD of being pro-Biden and pull out of the event, would hardly make sense as anti-Trump tactic given how the President’s rowdy behavior in the first debate proved to be plenty disastrous for him.
“…Had I wanted to help the Biden campaign, the last thing on my mind would have been to restrain the technique President Trump exhibited in the first debate,” Danforth wrote.
He warned that Trump accusing the debate organizers of bias as part of his crusade to delegitimize a potential defeat on Election Day “destroys public confidence” and “paves the way to violence in the streets.”
“It is not the honor of the commission that is at stake here,” Danforth wrote. “What is at stake is Americans’ belief in the fairness of our presidential debates and, in turn, the presidential election. When that faith is undermined, the damage to our country is incalculable.”
