The Commission on Presidential Debates rejected complaints from the Trump campaign about the upcoming presidential debate schedule, saying that the first debate will remain on Sept. 16.
"As it always does, the CPD considered multiple factors in selecting debate dates in order to make them accessible by the American public," the commission said in a statement Wednesday, reports NBC News.
"These factors include religious and federal holidays, early voting, and the dates on which individual states close their ballots," it added.
The commission said it "purposefully chose Sept. 16 after a comprehensive study of early voting rules in every state," and said the September debate, scheduled to be held at Texas State University in San Marcos, is the "earliest televised general election debate ever held."
Trump campaign co-managers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said in a statement Tuesday that the commission's schedule is "unacceptable" and that the debates will not begin "until after millions of Americans will have already cast their ballots."
"By refusing to move up the debates, they are doing a grave disservice to the American public who deserve to hear from both candidates before voting begins," they said.
The CPD, a nonpartisan entity, announced its schedule for three presidential debates late last year and said Wednesday that it "has only one mission: to sponsor and produce general election debates that inform and educate the public. Our schedule is designed with that single mission in mind."
The commission has sponsored all presidential debates since it launched in 1987.
The first presidential debate will be followed by a vice-presidential debate on Sept. 25 at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, with two more presidential debates planned for October in Virginia and Utah.
Most states will not have started mailing out their absentee ballots before the first debate, although some start earlier, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Generally, absentee ballots go out in most states within a month and a half of Election Day, which falls on Nov. 5 this year.
LaCivita and Wiles said Tuesday they are "committed to making this happen with or without the Presidential Debate Commission."
Meanwhile, the presumptive nominees, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, are already talking about the debates.
Biden told radio show host Howard Stern last week that he would be "happy to debate" Trump, and Trump responded on social media, saying he'll debate Biden "anywhere, anytime, anyplace."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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