FACT CHECK

Flailing Trump Falsely Claims Biden Will ‘Cancel the Debates’

The president opened his campaign speech with lies that had been disproven before he even told them.

President Trump opened a Wednesday campaign speech in Minnesota with a lie about the previous night’s presidential debate that had been disproven before he even told it: “Joe Biden lost badly. He should cancel the rest of his debates. Now I understand that he is going to cancel the debates.” In fact, Biden’s campaign had pledged just hours after the chaotic Tuesday night debate that the former vice president would appear at both the forthcoming face-offs between the candidates. Furthermore, Biden does not have the authority to cancel presidential debates. Trump went on to brazenly lie about the debate receiving “the highest ratings in the history of cable television,” adding for extra exaggeration, “It had second-highest ratings of overall television in the history of television. Does anyone know what was first?” Ratings for Tuesday night’s debate actually fell 13 percent from Trump’s own initial matchup against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016, according to Nielsen viewership data collected from 16 networks. Tuesday night’s debate was not the second-highest rated program in the history of television.