Jen Psaki Says She’s Skeptical of Trump-Biden Debates on Pod Save America, Predicts Why They Could ‘Fall Apart’

Screenshot via Pod Save America YouTube

Jen Psaki is “skeptical” of the upcoming debates between President Joe Biden and Donald Trump, laying out how they could “fall apart” in an interview this week with Pod Save America.

Biden posted a social media video early on Wednesday challenging Trump to two debates, and the former president quickly accepted. Two debates were set up that very day at CNN (June 27) and ABC (September 10). Trump also curiously announced a third debate on Fox News in October, but Biden’s campaign accused him of “playing games” with the rogue claim.

Psaki joined the Pod Save America podcast on Wednesday shortly after Biden and Trump had agreed to debate, and the MSNBC host and former White House press secretary revealed she’s not completely sold the events will actually happen.

“I’m still a skeptic, a little bit,” she said.

Former Barack Obama spokesperson Tommy Vietor called it “well-held skepticism.”

Psaki said Biden’s team needed to jump on the debate challenge to get ahead of the conversation. She called the social media video challenge an “interesting play” by the campaign.

“I think internally they knew that at some point this was going to hit a head. They were either going to be ahead of it, or they’d be responding to Trump,” she said.

She predicted that the list of criteria for the debates, which includes no live audience and candidates’ microphones being cut when their allotted time is up, could cause things to fall apart. Psaki said Biden’s team put Trump’s campaign “on their back feet” by getting ahead and laying out the ground rules. She added that this is also how Trump could find a way out of the debates.

“Trump could certainly say, ‘I never agreed to those specifics in the letter,’ and he probably will, and that’s how this all falls apart even though he’s basically said, ‘I would debate him anytime,'” she said.

Watch above via Pod Save America.