CHICAGO (NewsNation Now) — The president was back on the road again Tuesday in Pennsylvania, but he first paused to air complaints about the upcoming presidential debate as well as other issues. And while his rival former Vice President Joe Biden remains secluded in debate prep, he still managed to pick up three significant endorsements.
On Fox News, President Trump criticized the Presidential Debate Commission for its decision to mute the microphones of the candidates during portions of their encounter Thursday night.
“These people are not good people. A lot of funny things go on with them,” said Trump.
The commission made the change after the first debate dissolved into a shouting match with numerous interruptions and inaudible cross-talking.
The Republican campaign pulled out of the second debate last week, objecting to the commission’s decision, taken after the president fell ill with the coronavirus — to stage it from two remote locations.
The president has also objected to Thursday’s moderator, Kristen Welker of NBC, arguing that she is biased in much the way he said Chris Wallace of Fox News was when he moderated the first debate on Sept. 29.
At another large rally at an airport in Erie, Pennsylvania Tuesday, the president called for Attorney General William Barr to name a special prosecutor to look into what Trump often calls one of the biggest political scandals in history. During several recent events, Trump has referred to Biden as a criminal and the Biden family as corrupt.
“We’ve got to get the attorney general to act and he has to act fast. He has to appoint somebody,” said Trump. “This is major corruption and this has to be known about before the election. And by the way, we are doing very well, we’re going to win the election.”
Former Vice President Joe Biden won three notable endorsements Tuesday.
Retired Navy Adm. William McRaven — who oversaw the mission that killed Osama Bin Laden in 2011 — announced he had voted this week for Biden.
“We need a president for all Americans, not just half of America,” he wrote in an op-ed published Monday in the Wall Street Journal.
Michael Steele, a former Chairman of the Republican National Committee, said he too would be voting for Biden.
“We know a vote for Joe Biden is what is best for our country,” said Steele.
Steele is now a senior advisor to the Lincoln Project, a group of Republicans working to defeat President Trump.
On Tuesday, USA Today made its first-ever presidential endorsement. The editorial board of one of the biggest newspapers in the country wrote that Joe Biden “offers a shaken nation a harbor of calm and competence.”