The first 2020 presidential debate was chaotic this week, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) thinks that should be the last one ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
The House speaker made it very clear prior to the debate on Tuesday that she believed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden should not “bother” debating President Donald Trump. Now that the first of three is over, she wants them to be done with.
When asked by Bloomberg TV’s David Westin on Thursday if Biden should participate in the debates scheduled for Oct. 15 and Oct. 22, Pelosi responded, “I think one and done.”
“I myself did not think that Joe Biden should dignify debate with the president who has no commitment to fact, evidence, data, demeans the office he holds,” Pelosi continued, adding, “I never thought he shouldn’t do it because I didn’t think he would do well. I thought he shouldn’t do it because I thought something like this could happen.”
However, Biden’s campaign and the former vice president himself have indicated that he plans to continue with the rest of the presidential debates.
Pelosi made known on Wednesday during an MSNBC interview that she “lost a lot of sleep last night” over Trump not directly condemning white supremacists and militia groups during the debate when he was asked if he was willing to.
Both campaigns have weighed in on Tuesday night’s debate in Ohio. Biden called Trump’s behavior “a national embarrassment,” and Trump claimed he “won the debate easily.”
Fox News’ Chris Wallace, the moderator of the first debate, told The New York Times the debate was a “terrible missed opportunity” and that he “never dreamt that it would go off the tracks the way it did.”
The Commission on Presidential Debates announced on Wednesday there will be “additional structure” added “to the format of the remaining debates to ensure a more orderly discussion of the issues.”