Presidential debate schedule in disarray after Trump refuses virtual event

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Donald Trump says he will not participate in virtual debate with Joe Biden – video

Donald Trump added more turbulence on Thursday to the US presidential race by refusing to participate in the next presidential debate with Joe Biden after it was changed to a virtual event to guard against the spread of Covid-19, prompting both campaigns to propose postponing it a week.

On Thursday morning, the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) said that the next presidential debate, due on 15 October, would be a virtual affair, with the candidates appearing remotely.

“In order to protect the health and safety of all, the second presidential debate will take the form of a town meeting, in which the candidates would participate from separate remote locations,” it said.

But Trump, who was hospitalized for three days after disclosing last Friday that he had tested positive for the coronavirus, blasted the format change announced by the nonpartisan commission in charge of the debates and expressed concern that his microphone could be cut off at the event. Trump, who is still receiving Covid-19 treatment at the White House, also said he wanted to resume campaign rallies.

“I’m not going to waste my time on a virtual debate. That’s not what debating is all about,” Trump said in a nearly hour-long phone interview with Fox Business. “You sit behind a computer and do a debate – it’s ridiculous, and then they cut you off whenever they want.”

Following the president’s comments, the Biden and Trump campaigns both proposed pushing back the debate — which had been planned as the second of three — until 22 October, the date of what was scheduled as their final encounter before the 3 November election. Trump’s campaign also proposed holding another debate on 29 October, which Biden’s campaign rejected, saying the 22 October debate should be the final one.

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“Trump’s erratic behavior does not allow him to rewrite the calendar, and pick new dates of his choosing,” said Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s deputy campaign manager.

The two campaigns now await final decisions from the CPD.

Even before his illness was announced, Trump’s performance in the chaotic first debate with Biden last week prompted calls for a change in format. Trump constantly interrupted and talked over both Biden and the moderator.

With election day less than four weeks away, early voting has exceeded records. More than 6 million ballots already have been cast as Americans change their behavior to avoid possible infection at polling places amid a pandemic that already has killed more than 210,000 Americans. Opinion polls show Biden leading Trump nationally, though the race appears closer in battleground states that could decide the outcome.

The two vice-presidential contenders, the incumbent Mike Pence and Democratic vice presidential nominee Senator Kamala Harris, engaged in a debate on Wednesday evening that was far more orderly than the first Trump-Biden encounter.

After the first presidential debate, some observers had proposed giving the moderator in future debates the power to cut off any candidate who disrupted the proceedings. The debate commission said nothing about muting the participants in its announcement on Thursday.

In the interview on Thursday, Trump said he was feeling “really good”. Trump called himself ready to resume campaign rallies. Such rallies, particularly held indoors, have raised concern among public health exerts about spreading the virus. Trump said he was still taking steroids to treat the respiratory disease.

Trump said he did not believe he was still contagious, though that contention was not yet backed up by solid evidence from his doctors.

“I’d love to do a rally tonight. I wanted to do one last night,” Trump said, adding: “If I’m at a rally, I stand by myself very far away from everybody.”

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines say people who are severely ill with Covid-19 might need to stay home for up to 20 days after symptoms first appear. The White House has not provided detailed information on the severity of Trump’s illness and has refused to say when he last tested negative for the virus.

The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, challenged Trump to reveal when he last tested negative, asking at a press briefing: “Why is the White House not telling the country that important fact?“