National Republican Committee (NRC) chair Ronna McDaniel, who’s moving toward banning GOP candidates from participating in debates sponsored by the Committee on Presidential Debates (CPD), apparently forgot a key detail behind one of her grievances against the CPD.
During an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Monday night, McDaniel listed various complaints about the CPD’s 2020 election debates between President Donald Trump and challenger Joe Biden, which the RNC official claimed were biased toward the Democrat.
“And then they switched one of the debates to virtual to let Joe Biden stay in the basement,” McDaniel said.
Except that’s not why the commission did that.
The CPD changed the second presidential debate to a virtual format due to Trump coming down with COVID-19 “in order to protect the health and safety of all involved,” including 77-year-old Biden.
The then-president, who was still infected at the time, kicked up a fuss over the format change and refused to participate, leading the CPD to cancel the event entirely.
McDaniel made no mention of Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis as she was complaining on Monday about the CPD’s format decisions.
The RNC is poised to officially shut out the commission next month by enacting a requirement for all candidates who want to run under the GOP banner to sign a pledge vowing not to participate in CPD-hosted debates. McDaniel sent the CPD a letter last week warning of the RNC’s plans and accusing the commission of holding a pro-Democrat bias, echoing Trump’s demands for changes to the debate structure.
