The Commission on Presidential Debates was founded 35 years ago, and it has overseen the general election presidential and vice-presidental debates ever since—until this year.
Which makes The Daily Show‘s booking of the CPD founder co-chair Frank Fahrenkopf tonight a bit of a “get,” coming hot on the heels of news last week that both President Biden and Former President Trump had agreed to face-off at two presidential debates that would be held outside the purview of his organization.
The Commission had previously announced plans to host a series of debates in September and October, which both campaigns criticised for being too late in the election cycle. Although the CPD has said it’s still ready to execute on those plans, Stewart’s guest tonight seems be taking more of a scorched-earth approach to his reponse that Biden independently arranged debates with CNN and ABC—and that Trump had agreed to participate in them.
Fahrenkopf, who was chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1983 to 1989, lashed out at both campaigns for breaking with his organization in an interview with Politico late last week, accusing Biden’s senior communications adviser Anita Dunn of having a vendetta against him, and suggesting that the Trump campaign’s decision to participate in the non-CPD debates “could end up being one of the great blunders of the entire election cycle.”
Trump campaign advisor Chris LaCivita responded in a statement: “Frank’s political analysis is as relevant as the Commission on Presidential Debates is … which is … oh wait … done.”
“The bottom line is,” LaCivita continued, “we have debates that are a far cry more than an outdated Washington committee filled with a bunch of washed up swamp rats could deliver.”
