Trump Accuses Clinton of Rigging Debate Schedule, Caught in Multiple Lies

Donald Trump accused Democrats of rigging the upcoming debate schedule because two of the contests are competing with NFL games. Then Trump said the NFL sent him a letter expressing their disgust with the schedule. The problem with Trump’s claims are that the Democrats aren’t in charge of scheduling the debates and the NFL refuted his claim they ever sent him a letter.

Trump late Friday accused Clinton of intentionally stacking debates against primetime programming to “rig” the election process, despite the fact that the schedule has been set since last September.

“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.

This is not factual as preliminary debate schedule for the general election has been set since September, 2015, by the non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates.

Then 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.”

Pressed by host George Stephanopoulos on the dates, he said: “Hillary Clinton wants to be against the NFL. She doesn’t, maybe like she did with Bernie s– Bernie Sanders, where they were on Saturday nights when nobody’s home. But they’re against the NFL.”

“I saw the dates. Two– I think two of the three are against the NFL. So I’m not thrilled with that. But I like three debates. I think that’s fine. I think it’s enough. If somebody said, “one debate,” I’d rather have three. I think they’ll be very interesting.”

However an NFL spokesman confirmed the NFL did not send a letter to Trump, but added “obviously we wish they were not scheduled at the same time as two of our games.”

The schedule includes a Monday, Sept. 26 debate, which goes up against a game between Atlanta Falcons and the New Orleans Saints, and a Sunday night debate on Oct. 9 that will air concurrently with an NFL game between the Green Bay Packers and the Carolina Panthers.

(h/t Politico)
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