In this interview, Dennis Prager questions Steve Cortes, a senior figure in President Trump's campaign, about the Commission on Presidential Debates' sudden decision to make the upcoming debate virtual due to President Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis. Cortes denounces the move as a partisan, "swamp" tactic, alleging the commission is biased toward the Biden campaign and aims to shift media focus from Vice President Pence's strong debate performance to a new story that benefits the Democrats. He explains the Trump campaign's stance: they will not accept a virtual debate, proposing instead a one‑week postponement of the second and third debates. Cortes also mentions the possibility of bypassing the commission entirely and negotiating directly with the Biden team. The conversation shifts to the broader pandemic‑economy debate, with Cortes rejecting the notion that the economy must wait for the virus to be fully conquered. He cites the rapid economic rebound in states that reopened early, highlights his "MAGAnomics" show reaching two million viewers, and argues that a full return to normalcy could make 2021 the strongest economic year in U.S. history. Throughout, Cortes frames the Biden campaign and mainstream media as attempting to protect Joe Biden by limiting his debate environment, while portraying the Trump campaign as fighting a biased establishment.
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Steve Cortez is a major figure in the president's campaign. And explain to me, please, because it sounds a little screwy to me that the Commission on Debates has come out and said that the next debate cannot be in person but must be virtual. Do you know anything about that?
Oh, I sure do. No, and by the way, it's more than screwy. It's just reprehensible. These are swamp tactics at their worst. So here's what happened last night. Of course, amazingly powerful, persuasive performance from Vice President Pence. Fairly humiliating night in my view, and I think in most people's view, their objective for Kamala Harris. Mere hours later, 7:30 AM Eastern time today, the debate commission, which is allegedly bipartisan, but it isn't. The only Republicans on there are establishment swamp Republicans who hate our movement and detest the president. 7:30 AM without any notification at all, any consultation with the Trump campaign, makes a unilateral decision that the debate in a whole week from now, 7 days from now, cannot be held and uses as the pretext the infection of President Trump. Now here's the reality with President Trump. His medical team tells us that he will very likely be completely cleared by this weekend, meaning not only is he no longer sick, and at this point not showing no symptoms, but not only is he not sick, that he will be not contagious by the weekend, that he will be totally clear to be a normal person, to interact as any other person would who is healthy. In addition to that, by the way, I can go even further. The doctor says there are early signs that he has the antibody, so he might even be better than back to healthy. And rather than waiting for that medical clearance, the debate commission intercedes again unilaterally. Why? I have to think there's two reasons. Number one, they want to step on the president— the vice president's performance. They want to create a new news story for the day. So instead of spending most of the day talking about how wonderfully Pence did and the dangerous radical agenda of Kamala Harris, suddenly the story changes, right? This is what the swamp does. And secondly, maybe more importantly in the big picture, they're trying to protect Joe Biden. They want him to be able to do the debate from his basement where we will have no idea what kind of assistance he's getting electronically from staff, otherwise. They are clearly trying to bail him out. So the president and our campaign immediately said, hell no, we are not agreeing to this. There is no such thing as a virtual debate. There's no reason for this. Uh, what we have since said— that was the first response this morning, was just no. What we have since said is we would agree to a week delay on debates 2 and 3. So we're trying to be reasonable and saying they have to go off as planned, but a week later. So they will be— instead of the 15th, it will be the 22nd of October and the 29th of October. Now, I think that's very accommodating of our campaign. We don't know yet what the commission will say or what the Biden campaign will say. We are also, I can tell you, considering at least just knocking the commission out of it entirely. In other words, let's try if we can to just negotiate with the Biden campaign because the commission is corrupted. It just is, uh, Frank.
And useless. Useless. Who wants them? Yeah, no, I mean, if two people cannot— two campaigns cannot agree on how to debate, then, then it's irrelevant, right?
I concur exactly. And so we're considering that as well. So it's been a very busy day here, as you can imagine, and But it's interesting. I mean, you know, a lot of us got in here this morning a little tired because it was a late night with the debates, of course. And, but you know, elated, right? Because our guy right now, because the president can't be out in public yet, our standard bearer is Vice President Pence. And our standard bearer went out and just did wonderful work last night for the country, for our cause. So we come in, you know, pretty dang elated, right? I also think Kamala Harris was revealed for who she really is. And then, you know, this punch in the gut. But this is what the swamp does, unfortunately.
All right, one more, one more thing, Steve, one more thing. I wish the vice president and the president, and you're the ear that I need to convey this, made it clear, and clarity is only available through clarity and repetition, that as Daniel Henninger writes, and as I have been saying so much, they want— they believe you can't have an economy till the virus is conquered. We do not agree.
Correct.
That must be made as clear as possible.
Your advice is well taken on that score, and I will convey that to the president himself. And, and I will tell you this, I'm doing everything I can within our platforms. For instance, I do a show called MAGAnomics, and it just shows on our social media. Most people watch it on our Facebook page, and that might sound like it's not a big deal. Well, Dennis, my Monday night one, I got 2 million viewers. Okay, so it's getting Fox News primetime kind of numbers talking about exactly what you're talking about. It's not a matter of we put our society on hold until there is no more virus. No, the economy is roaring back to life, thank God. And it's primarily doing that, by the way, because of the freedom jurisdictions, places like Florida, uh, that have acted appropriately, have smartly managed risks while reopening our society. They're carrying the load in many ways for the entire country, and we're still doing great on a national basis. Dennis, if we were to take the shackles off of places like my hometown of Chicago, your home state of California, I think 2021 could be the greatest economic year in American history. I really believe that because of the, of the V-shaped rebound that is already occurring. And to some degree, we're fighting with only one hand, you know, rather than both hands. So if we can convince the people in those— and the politicians, unfortunately, in those blue states, those lockdown locations— that it is time for us to get back to normalcy in this country, and we do not have to wait for the vaccine. We hope that happens, of course, but we don't have to wait for it. You're exactly right. It's not an either-or. It's not a binary choice. This economy is is roaring back to life in most of America. It should be doing so in all of America.
All right, let's keep talking. You're invaluable to the, uh, to the country right now.
