Matt DePerno and Dana Nessel
There's no debating a debate as far as Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is concerned.
Nessel says she passing on her Republican opponent Matthew DePerno's request to debate. Period. He wants three debates.
The Detroit Free Press reports:
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel says she'll pass − debating opponent Matthew DePerno may violate her oath as a prosecutor and she doesn't want to give him a platform to spew hate or misinformation that could lead to someone getting hurt, she said.
"I think it's so important to have an exchange of dialogue and ideas. But this is not going to be the Lincoln-Douglas debate. This is a guy who again, it's not just that he's been pejorative — he's a bully, he's a name caller," Nessel told reporters Wednesday.
"The fact that he's taken to calling me ‘general groomer' over and over and again, using the Pepe the Frog meme, I think his ideas are actually dangerous. And I don't want to provide him a forum to disseminate ideas that I think will actually culminate in potential acts of violence against people."
On Twitter, DePerno posts:
"It's time for Drunk Dana to defend her continuous record of failure that has prioritized herself and the Governor over the hardworking people of this state. Dana, please give me three dates and times that work for you and I will make it a priority to be there."
In a statement emailed to news organizations Wednesday, Nessel said:
“Mr. DePerno has demonstrated not just a complete and utter inability to relay truthful information about the 2020 election, my positions, or virtually any subject matter, but he also has a propensity to engage in name-calling, and in utilizing racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, and misogynistic rhetoric and imagery.
"Such hateful language and the constant spread of disinformation inevitably leads to the rise in hate crimes and escalation in violence against government officials, and undermines the electorate’s faith in our system of elections and our democracy as a whole."
Ex-President Donald Trump has endorsed DePerno, who's considered an underdog.
