The line seemed to echo many of Trump’s complaints about the national news media, and reflect the president’s ongoing resistance to exposing himself to critical questioning, whether by avoiding traditional news conferences and formal news briefings, or by favoring interviewers from conservative TV shows and outlets.

Hewitt revisited his argument that the debates are biased against Trump on his radio show Friday in an interview with “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd, who expressed doubts “there will be debates as far as the way we’re used to them.” Todd said Trump “is just not going to agree to anything that somebody else suggests.”

During the 2016 election, Trump repeatedly attacked the commission’s debate process as “unfair” and “rigged” against him, even though the schedule was similarly released a year out and long before either he or Hillary Clinton secured their party’s nominations.

Trump also falsely claimed that the NFL sent him a letter objecting to the commission’s schedule and suggested he should be able to reject a chosen moderator or that, perhaps, there should be no moderator at all.

And yet Trump ended up participating in the three contests. Despite all of Trump’s public complaints, members of the commission said, his campaign was supportive — giving them some hope that the same cycle of loud public complaints and accusations followed by eventual acquiescence will play out again.

Then presidential candidates Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz during a Republican debate March 10, 2016, in Florida. | Wilfredo Lee/AP Photo

Mike McCurry, a former Clinton White House press secretary who served alongside Fahrenkopf as commission co-chair in 2016, said that interactions with Trump’s representatives, who included former White House counsel Don McGahn, were straightforward.

“I think we were all mildly surprised at how easy and nonconfrontational the experience was with the Trump folks,” McCurry wrote in an email to POLITICO. He added, “I think Trump will take a much different posture with respect to the 2020 general election debates but, like everything else with Trump, that is totally unpredictable at this point.”

Trump did not directly answer a reporter’s question in August about whether he’d take part in 2020 general election debates, though he suggested he’s “the one calling the shots,” a position that would put him at odds with the nonpartisan commission. A White House spokesperson did not respond to a question from POLITICO this week about the president’s plans now that the debates have been scheduled.

Todd, for one, doesn’t expect Trump play ball with the commission. “I will be stunned if we see a one-on-one debate,” he told Hewitt. “I think he is going to avoid debates. ... He won’t agree to appear on stage with his opponent.”

There is no law mandating that a presidential candidate must debate, and Trump has proved willing to break with precedent. For instance, Trump effectively killed the daily White House news briefing, which was a mainstay in both recent Republic and Democratic administrations.

Trump regularly takes reporters’ questions during photo-ops with world leaders or in front of Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, but the often chaotic interactions with journalists play out on his terms alone. When it comes to facing sustained questioning, as in a television interview, the president typically turns to more friendly hosts on Fox News and Fox Business.

If Trump rejects the commission’s schedule, Todd suggested it could lead to a “sort of a Wild West” in which networks compete to get the candidates on their respective stages. That would be a major shift in how the debates have been handled since the commission took the reins before the 1988 election.

For primary debates, the networks that produce them — such as CNN this week — also broadcast them. But the commission-sponsored debates are covered by the White House television pool, which includes the major broadcast and cable networks, all of which can air it live.

Also, the general election debates run commercial free for 90 minutes, whereas networks can insert ads into primary debates, with recent 2020 Democratic contests stretching as long as three hours.

Prior to the formation of the commission, Fahrenkopf said, campaigns could reject moderators, with nearly 100 members of the media vetoed ahead of the 1984 Reagan-Mondale debates. That election prompted Georgetown and Harvard studies about better ways to conduct debates, he said, which led to the commission’s founding three years later.

Fahrenkopf said that when selecting moderators, the commission — which includes board members experienced in moderating, like former ABC News anchor Charles Gibson and former PBS anchor Jim Lehrer — examines an individual journalist’s body of work rather than focus on where they’re employed.

In 2016, the commission tapped NBC’s Lester Holt, ABC’s Martha Raddatz, CNN’s Anderson Cooper, and Fox’s Chris Wallace for the three presidential contests. (Raddatz and Cooper co-moderated the town hall debate.) And CBS’ Elaine Quijano was selected for the vice presidential debate.

Fahrenkopf said “there’s always criticism” of the moderators, though he believes the overwhelming majority have been fair. He counts two instances in his 30-plus years when he believes the commission made a mistake and “the moderator inserted themselves when they shouldn’t.” He declined to give examples.

One incident frequently raised by critics, including Hewitt, was then-CNN anchor Candy Crowley injecting herself into the 2012 debate between President Barack Obama and then-former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney over the Benghazi attack.

Fahrenkopf said he isn’t surprised Trump hasn’t yet committed to three 2020 debates, acknowledging that “circumstances can change dramatically” for a candidate between now and the first debate, which is scheduled for Sept. 29 at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.

The commission typically begins discussions with the candidates’ representatives after the summer political conventions. Fahrenkopf predicted that Trump and the future Democratic nominee will have plenty of people offering “thoughts about what they should do.”

“We just do what we do,” he said, “and hope that they’re going to appear before the American people.”

