Trump campaign objects to the final presidential debate's topics

Deadline

Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien tweeted a letter to the "Biden Debate Commission" this afternoon claiming the final debate was supposed to focus exclusively on foreign policy -- not on the list of topics selected by moderator Kristen Welker, who announced last week the following six debate topics: fighting coronavirus, American families, race in America, climate change, national security and leadership. “As is the longstanding custom, and as had been promised by the Commission on Presidential Debates, we had expected that foreign policy would be the central focus of the October 22 debate,” Stepien wrote, accusing the commission of trying to “insulate Biden from his own history.” But as The New York Times' Michael M. Grynbaum points out, there's no evidence that the final debate would focus on foreign policy. "Debate Commission said in Sept the 3rd debate format 'will be identical' to the first," which was "six segments of 15 minutes each on major topics to be selected by the moderator," tweeted Grynbaum. The Biden campaign, meanwhile, responded to the Trump campaign's objections: "The campaigns & the Commission agreed months ago that the debate moderator would choose the topics...As usual, the president is more concerned with the rules of a debate than he is getting a nation in crisis the help it needs."

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• Trump continued attacking debate moderator Kristen Welker on Monday, calling her a “dyed-in-the-wool, radical left Democrat"
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