President Donald Trump, who argued that the debates during the 2016 campaign were rigged against him, is reportedly mulling the possibility of sitting out any such encounters during next year’s campaign.
According to The New York Times, Trump has told campaign advisers that he does not trust the Commission on Presidential Debates that sponsors the match-ups.
Trump has said that he was deliberately put at a disadvantage by the commission during his debates with Hillary Clinton in 2016. In one incident, he said a defective microphone that altered the volume of his voice might have been sabotaged on purpose.
Trump also took issue with the fact that two of the debates were scheduled on the same nights as popular NFL football games. He tweeted that Democrats were “trying to rig the debates.”
Post-debates polls showed that Clinton gained ground following each of her debates with Trump. One taken after the third debate, for example, had 60 percent of respondents saying she outperformed the future president and only 31 percent favoring Trump. – READ MORE