Trump may sit out the presidential debates — because he's afraid the debate moderators will be mean to him: report

On Thursday, The New York Timesreported that President Donald Trump is considering blowing off the presidential debates in 2020, no matter who the Democrats select as their nominee.

His reason? He distrusts the Commission on Presidential Debates, which oversees and plans the events. Specifically, reported Maggie Haberman and Annie Karni, "less of a concern for Mr. Trump than who will emerge as the Democratic nominee is which media personality will be chosen as the debate moderator, according to people in contact with him."

Trump has long despised mainstream media, referring to networks other than Fox News as "fake news" and "the enemy of the people," and suggesting that he would like to make it easier to file libel suits against reporters.

During the presidential debates in 2016, Trump fought with the moderators on air, at one point demanding that CNN anchor Anderson Cooper stop taking questions from the audience to talk more about Hillary Clinton's email server.