Trump campaign advisor Steve Cortes accused the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates of being “corrupt” and forcefully dismissed its concerns about exposing its production team to Covid if next week’s town hall were to be held in person.

During an appearance on Fox News’ Special Report with Bret Baier, Cortes leapt right into a baseless accusation that the CPD was plotting against President Donald Trump and in favor of Democratic challenger Joe Biden.

“Unfortunately, the Commission on Presidential Debates has revealed itself as a corrupt and complicit cabal, they are trying to put their thumb on the scale in favor of Joe Biden, they are trying to protect him and, in effect, bail him out,” Cortes claimed, before citing the timing of the announcement on early Thursday morning as somehow proof of CPD’s “despicable backroom Beltway tactics.” Cortes alleged that the debate commission’s early Thursday change to the second debate format was an attempt to change the narrative from Vice President Mike Pence’s victory at the VP debate — which a CNN poll found Pence lost soundly.

“Let me interrupt you, this is what [the CPD] said,” Baier broke in.”They said they couldn’t get it staffed, they couldn’t get people to go to Miami because they were so concerned about the health of their own persons, the camera people. The staff that worked in Cleveland were revolting essentially because the president, they believe, endangered them on that stage, that’s what they say. Not that it was some cabal to help Joe Biden, but they were concerned about their personal safety. How do you respond to that?”

Cortes responded by saying some the Republicans on the commission had been critical of Trump in the past — and so were hopelessly prejudiced. “A lot of them may have a R after their name, but these are people who wholly detested the America First movement broadly and Donald Trump.”

“I don’t buy that,” Cortes then added, of the commission’s concerns about exposing its production team to a possibly still-infected Trump. “You’re telling me we couldn’t find cameramen? I don’t buy that for one second, that’s a ridiculous canard of an excuse — of course we could staff a debate.”

“He will agree to show a negative test before doing another debate?” Baier pressed.

“I don’t want to speak in terms of exactly what he will show,” Cortes said, now hedging about the campaign’s terms for a debate. “But what I’m saying is this that he will have clearance, medical clearance clearly before he engages in physical activities, which is a week out.”

Baier then pointed out the difficulty of Trump proving he’s fully clear of the virus if the public doesn’t know the date of his last negative test, which the White House has repeatedly refused to reveal.

“There is skepticism about what is coming and the people who are in the middle of these debates,” the Fox host explained. “Here’s what I’m asking you: What is the president planning to do, what is the counter-offer by the campaign for the next debate? Obviously you all need these debates to get more eyeballs prior to the election, correct?”

“I think the country need these debates, but certainly yes, we want a vigorous debate, we want transparency for the American people,” Cortes claimed, without committing to divulging the very thing Baier was asking transparency on. “We said let’s delay both debates back a week, October 22nd, October 29th — there is no reasonable way anybody could use the pretext of Covid to say we cannot have debates on October 22nd and 29th, they are trying to — they are playing plan to make politics and they are trying to use the disease to cover up for them.”

“This commission is totally discredited, this is the swamp at its very worst,” Cortes concluded.

Watch the video above, via Fox News.

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