Biden Campaign Denies Fox News Report That They Requested Breaks During Debate
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Biden communications director Kate Bedingfield denied a Fox News report that the former vice president’s campaign requested breaks during Tuesday night’s debate.
She also shot down a request from the Trump campaign that Joe Biden be checked for an earpiece.
“Of course he’s not wearing an earpiece and we never asked for breaks,” Bedingfield said on a conference call with reporters ahead of the first debate between Biden and President Donald Trump.
Fox News reported Tuesday that several requests were being made as part of last-minute debate negotiations. They reported that the Trump campaign was demanding each candidate be inspected by a third party for earpieces, and that the Biden campaign requested a break every 30 minutes.
The 90-minute debate will have no breaks and will be commercial free.
After denying that reporting, Bedingfield, making a point about how easy it is to “throw up a distraction,” alleged that it was actually the Trump campaign that had a special request for debate night.
“If we’re playing that game, then you know, the Trump team asked Chris Wallace not to mention the number of deaths from Covid once during the debate,” she said. “You can consider that confirmed from the Biden campaign. See how easy that was to try to throw up a distraction?”
Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh denied that claim on Twitter.
This is a lie and it never happened. This is the height of playing politics with a public health crisis. Biden is trying to distract from the facts that he won’t submit to an inspection for earpieces, won’t take a drug test, and needs multiple breaks during the 90-minute debate. https://t.co/94MvUnJAtP
— Tim Murtaugh – Download the Trump 2020 app today! (@TimMurtaugh) September 29, 2020
Fox News anchor Bret Baier addressed the idea of an earpiece inspection and debate breaks while on with Bill Hemmer Tuesday morning, calling it “interesting” that the Biden campaign had denied the request.
“Those are significant,” Baier said. “First of all, the breaks are set by the debate commission. So the Trump campaign may not have agreed to it but also the debate commission has always said it is 90 minutes straight through and that’s how they plan for it and that’s what they told the networks and that’s what we’re planning for as far as our coverage.”
Fox News reporter Peter Doocy later appeared on The Daily Briefing with Dana Perino to address Beningfield’s denial of both claims, sharing audio from her conference call.
“Dana, it’s something that started behind-the-scenes but spilled out into the open in the last few hours. During negotiations about ground rules for tonight’s debate, the Trump campaign has been pushing the Biden campaign for an ear check. They want a third party to come in and literally look into the ears of each debaters to make sure there is not some sort of a listening device or an electronic transmitter,” Doocy said.
“The Trump campaign now says this in a statement, ‘Joe Biden’s handlers several days ago agreed to a pre-debate inspection for electronic earpieces but today a abruptly reversed themselves and declined. Biden’s handlers have asked for multiple breaks during the debate, which President Trump doesn’t need, so we have rejected that request.’ But now the Biden campaign is strongly pushing back on that.”
Watch above, via Fox News.
