Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) stressed the importance of a debate between the presidential candidates taking place regardless of the terms.
A debate has been scheduled for Sept. 10 on ABC and Cruz thinks former President Donald Trump should be there regardless of the “stupid rules they want,” referring to Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign.
Cruz made his case Monday night while he was interviewed by host Sean Hannity on Fox News.
The senator started by opposing Hannity’s opinion that Trump should fight any demands Harris makes for the debate, The Hill reported.
“Sean, I think Trump needs to do the debate,” Cruz said. “And frankly, I think he should agree to whatever stupid rules they want. It’s going to be hostile and rigged regardless.”
“Kamala wants to pick this fight to have an excuse to get out of the debate. Don’t let her out of the debate,” he added. “We need her there, because without a debate, her campaign will never answer a single question between now and Election Day, and that’s their only hope of winning: is focus on joy and hopey, changey stuff and not her disastrous record.”
Both Hannity and Cruz said they believe ABC News would not be objective.
Recently, the question of whether the microphones should remain on throughout the debate or only on when a candidate is answering a question, IJR reported on.
The mics were muted in June’s debate between Trump and President Joe Biden. Now, Harris’ camp said it prefers the mics not to be muted.
On Monday, Trump said Monday it didn’t matter to if the microphones were muted. However, he balked at participating in the debate.
Hannity noted the rules have been set and the debate should proceed,
Harris can “accept a debate that you agreed to” or “walk away and hide.”
“Don’t you think she ends up looking bad on that?” Hannity asked.
“Yeah, but you know what? I think she’d be happy to walk away from that,” Cruz said. He said Trump should tell Harris’ campaign to “come up with whatever stupid rules you want.”
“If you want her to wear a cheese head while she’s debating, you want the mics hot or not, you want her to have an encyclopedia of talking points in front of her, I don’t care,” he said. “I want to stand up directly and contrast her record and mine, because on every front, Donald Trump’s record, we had success in this country.”
