After Fox News reported that during negotiations for tonight’s presidential debate the Biden camp had wanted breaks in the debate every 30 minutes, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany fired a tweet at the Biden camp: “There are no breaks when you’re leader of the free world, Joe!”
Biden is asking for a break every 30 minutes during tonight’s debate!
There are no breaks when you’re leader of the free world, Joe! https://t.co/2lMiKAHD7Q
— Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) September 29, 2020
McEnany was responding to tweets from Pat Ward of Fox News, who not only indicated that the Biden camp wanted a break every thirty minutes during the debate, but they also had not yet consented to the Trump camp’s request that a third party inspect the ears of the debaters for electronic devices or transmitters. Ward wrote:
FOX News has learned new details about debate negotiations between the Biden and Trump campaigns ahead of tonight’s debate: The Trump campaign wants the Biden campaign to allow a third party to inspect the ears of the debaters for electronic devices or transmitters. The President has consented to this inspection, but Biden has not – so far. The Biden campaign requested two breaks (one every thirty minutes) during tonight’s program, which was denied by their Trump counterparts, in negotiations over the last several weeks.
FOX News has learned new details about debate negotiations between the Biden and Trump campaigns ahead of tonight’s debate: (1/3)
— Pat Ward (@WardDPatrick) September 29, 2020
The Biden campaign requested two breaks (one every thirty minutes) during tonight’s program, which was denied by their Trump counterparts, in negotiations over the last several weeks. (3/3)
— Pat Ward (@WardDPatrick) September 29, 2020
The Biden campaign has since reportedly denied the claim.
The Biden campaign says this is false and has also denied reporting that they asked for breaks during the debate.
— Ebony Bowden (@ebonybowden) September 29, 2020
Last week, speaking in Jacksonville, Florida, President Trump talked to his supporters about Biden. He asserted:
He’s a sleepy guy. Did you see he did a lid this morning? Again, lid, lid. You know what a lid is? A lid is when you put out word you’re not going to be campaigning today. So he does the lid all the time. I’m working my ass off. I’m in Texas. I’m in Ohio. I’m in North Carolina, South Carolina. I’m in Michigan. I’m all over the place, Wisconsin.
“So a lid, I didn’t know what the hell I lid was,” Trump continued. “I’ve only been doing this for three and a half years. Right? But a lid is you’re not going to go out today. You’re going to stay in your apartment, or let’s put it this way, in his basement. So early in the morning, he’s put a lid on. That means nothing for the… I guess they do that for the press. The fake news goes home and they say how great he is as a candidate. They go home and they say, ‘He’s a great candidate,’ but he put another lid, many lids. So he did a lid today, early in the morning, that he won’t be working today. And I don’t know, I’m working so hard. Maybe he’s right. Think of it. Supposing he never campaigns and he wins. You know how badly I’m going to feel? I’m working hard and you’ve got to work hard. And you know what? I said it today, we cannot have a low energy individual as our president. We can’t.”
Trump turned to the forthcoming debates: “And he’s the lowest energy individual I’ve ever seen. I’ve ever seen. So we’ll see what happens, but he’s lidding up. Maybe he’s going to be great at the debate. He’s been doing it for 47 years. Somebody said, ‘Oh, he won’t do well at the debate.’ I said, “I think you’re wrong. He’ll do fine. He’s going to do fine.” They’ll give him a big shot or something and he’ll go out there. He’ll have a lot of energy. He’ll have energy. He’ll be like Superman for about 15 minutes.”
This article has been updated to include the Biden campaign’s denial.