Trump Complains About Debate Schedule

As we noted elsewhere, Donald Trump’s main message is that he is a victim. Everybody is mean to him. His supporters identify. And they say the USA is a victim, too. Trump always strikes back, and so, maybe he’ll strike back for us—and for the USA. Right? Well, that requires a steady stream of complaints about unfair treatment.

The latest is his complaint that Hillary Clinton is rigging the debate schedule.

Donald Trump says he wants three presidential debates. But he stands by his complaint that their scheduling is rigged to favor Hillary Clinton.

In an interview to be aired Sunday on ABC News’ “This Week,” Trump said: “Well, I’ll tell you what I don’t like. It’s against two NFL games. I got a letter from the NFL saying, “This is ridiculous. Why are the debates against–” ’cause the NFL doesn’t wanna go against the debates. ‘Cause the debates are gonna be pretty massive, from what I understand, okay? And I don’t think we should be against the NFL. I don’t know how the dates were picked.”. . .

“As usual, Hillary & the Dems are trying to rig the debates so 2 are up against major NFL games. Same as last time w/ Bernie. Unacceptable!” Trump tweeted late Friday night.

Trump says he’s not alone in this complaint. He says the NFL sent him a letter complaining about it. After all, who would watch a football game if they got a chance to see The Donald? (He appears on TV so seldom!)

Two of the three upcoming presidential debates conflict with prime-time NFL games. One of the candidates for the highest office in the land claims that the league has requested a rescheduling of the debates. . .

I got a letter from the NFL saying, ‘This is ridiculous. Why are the debates against’ — ’cause the NFL doesn’t wanna go against the debates. ‘Cause the debates are gonna be pretty massive, from what I understand, OK?”

Unfortunately, the NFL denies sending a letter.

The NFL says no such letter was sent.

“While we’d obviously wish the Debate Commission could find another night, we did not send a letter to Mr Trump,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said on Twitter. . .

So this one should be easy to prove. Trump simply needs to produce the piece of paper. That should be easy to do, right?

Of course, if Trump does indeed produce the piece of paper, there’s always a chance that someone will express skepticism about its authenticity.

Ha. The guy who demanded to see Obama’s birth certificate is now being asked to produce the letter! And then, they’ll ask for the “long form.”

Not unsurprisingly, Reince Priebus is standing by Trump on this—in the most jaw-droppingly subservient way possible.

“Certainly we’re not going to agree with anything that our nominee doesn’t agree with,” Priebus said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”. . .

“It’s up to the nominee of both parties to make that decision, but certainly the RNC’s going to be involved in supporting our nominee and his position on this,” Priebus said.

Good boy, Reince. Here, have a Scooby Treat®!

The thing is, the schedule has been set since September of 2015.

The Commission on Presidential Debates responded to Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee’s complaints about the debate schedule with a message on Sunday: The schedule is set.

“The Commission on Presidential Debates (CDP) started working more than 18 months ago to identify religious and federal holidays, baseball league playoff games, NFL games, and other events in order to select the best nights for the 2016 debates,” the commission said in a statement. “It is impossible to avoid all sporting events, and there have been nights on which debates and games occurred in most election cycles. A debate has never been rescheduled as a result.”

There’s one major problem with Trump’s latest conspiracy theory. The fault does not lie with Hillary Clinton, Jack Ruby, or even Lee Harvey Oswald. The fault lies with the NFL.

The bipartisan CPD selected the dates and locations in September 2015. The NFL announced its regular-season schedule in April [2016].

Yes, the NFL would like to have the debates moved. But as you can see, the CDP had “dibs” on those dates more than a half-year ahead of the NFL.

If you’re interested in the actual dates, which were set 11 months ago, we got it for you, right here.

Monday, September 26, 2016
First presidential debate
Location: Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY

The first debate will be divided into six time segments of approximately 15 minutes each on major topics to be selected by the moderator and announced at least one week before the debate. The moderator will open each segment with a question, after which each candidate will have two minutes to respond. Candidates will then have an opportunity to respond to each other. The moderator will use the balance of the time in the segment for a deeper discussion of the topic.

Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Vice presidential debate
Location: Longwood University, Farmville, VA

The Vice Presidential debate will be divided into nine time segments of approximately 10 minutes each. The moderator will ask an opening question, after which each candidate will have two minutes to respond. The moderator will use the balance of the time in the segment for a deeper discussion of the topic.

Sunday, October 9, 2016
Second presidential debate
Location: Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO

The second presidential debate will take the form of a town meeting, in which half of the questions will be posed directly by citizen participants and the other half will be posed by the moderator based on topics of broad public interest as reflected in social media and other sources. The candidates will have two minutes to respond and there will be an additional minute for the moderator to facilitate further discussion. The town meeting participants will be uncommitted voters selected by the Gallup Organization.

Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Third presidential debate
Location: University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV

The format for the third debate will be identical to the first presidential debate.

Dear reader: Sorry for the sarcasm, but Trump never stops “whining” (as he used to say about his opponents), and this one was particularly ridiculous. Now, excuse me, as I find a way to slam Hillary. . .