After debate is set to go virtual, Trump says he won’t attend

An online presidential debate has been done before, but President Donald Trump has said he won't attend the second debate against Joe Biden if it's not in person. The decision to make the debate virtual follows Mr. Trump's diagnosis with COVID-19.

|
Patrick Semansky/AP
President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden gesture during the first presidential debate in Cleveland, Ohio. The debate commission has proposed that both candidates be in separate rooms for the next debate.

President Donald Trump vowed Thursday not to participate in next week’s debate with Democratic nominee Joe Biden after the debate organizers announced it will take place virtually because of the president’s recent diagnosis of COVID-19.

The Commission on Presidential Debates announced early Thursday the candidates would “participate from separate remote locations” while the participants and moderator remain in Miami, where the debate was scheduled to be held. Moments later, Mr. Trump vowed to skip the event entirely. 

“I’m not going to do a virtual debate,” Mr. Trump told Fox Business News.

The shakeup comes a week before Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden were set to square off for the second of three presidential debates. Mr. Biden’s campaign insisted its candidate was ready to move forward, but the future of the event is now in serious doubt. 

The Commission on Presidential Debates made the decision unilaterally, citing the need “to protect the health and safety of all involved with the second presidential debate.”

When Republican Mike Pence and Democrat Kamala Harris squared off for their only vice presidential debate in Salt Lake City on Wednesday night, they shared a stage but were separated by plexiglass in an effort to help prevent the spread of the virus.

Mr. Trump’s campaign said the president would do a rally instead of the debate.

“For the swamp creatures at the Presidential Debate Commission to now rush to Joe Biden’s defense by unilaterally canceling an in-person debate is pathetic,” Bill Stepien, Trump campaign manager said in a statement. “The safety of all involved can easily be achieved without canceling a chance for voters to see both candidates go head to head. We’ll pass on this sad excuse to bail out Joe Biden and do a rally instead.”

Mr. Trump was hospitalized for three days but is now back at the White House recovering. He has vowed to return to the campaign trail soon. Still, the commission’s move is yet another indication that the presidential election is being dominated by the virus – defying the president’s months-long attempts to underplay it and declare that the country was ready to move on.

Mr. Trump is thought to be trailing in key battleground states. Even before his COVID-19 diagnosis, he was widely criticized for his chaotic performance during last week’s first presidential debate in Cleveland, Ohio. Next week’s debate, and a third one set for the following week in Nashville, would have been a chance for him to attempt to reset the election and potentially change its trajectory.

Mr. Biden’s aides argued that Mr. Trump’s pulling out could be a boon to their candidate. Given reactions to the chaotic first debate, they believe most voters, especially undecided voters, will see the president as avoiding a second debate out of his own interests, not because he dislikes the format.

“Vice President Biden looks forward to speaking directly to the American people,” deputy Biden campaign manager Kate Bedingfield said in a statement.

Mr. Biden said earlier in the week that he was “looking forward to being able to debate him” but added “we’re going to have to follow very strict guidelines.” He said he and Mr. Trump “shouldn’t have a debate” as long as the president remains COVID positive.

Mr. Trump was diagnosed with the coronavirus a week ago, but in a Tuesday tweet said he looked forward to debating Mr. Biden a second time. “It will be great!” he tweeted.

He fell ill with the virus last Thursday, just 48 hours after debating Mr. Biden in person for the first time in Cleveland. While the two candidates remained a dozen feet apart during the debate, Mr. Trump’s infection sparked health concerns for Mr. Biden and sent him to undergo multiple COVID-19 tests before returning to the campaign trail.

Mr. Trump was still contagious with the virus when he was discharged from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Monday but his doctors have not provided any detailed update on his status. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, those with mild to moderate symptoms of COVID-19 can be contagious for as many as – and should isolate for at least – 10 days.

The debate wouldn’t be the first in which the candidates are not in the same room. In 1960, the third presidential debate between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy was broadcast with the two candidates on opposite coasts.

This story was reported by The Associated Press. 

Editor’s note: As a public service, the Monitor has removed the paywall for all our coronavirus coverage. It’s free.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to After debate is set to go virtual, Trump says he won’t attend
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2020/1008/After-debate-is-set-to-go-virtual-Trump-says-he-won-t-attend
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe