Stage set for final TrumpBiden showdown in Nashville
Extensive safety protocols, sprawling media accommodations, and laboriously detailed event plans are in place for the final globally televised showdown between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden in Nashville.
In less than a week, the presidential candidates will stand 12 feet apart on a platform in the cavernous Curb Event Center at Belmont University surrounded by lights and cameras.
The final debate, moderated by Weekend TODAY co- anchor Kristen Welker, will take place 11 days before the election on Oct. 22 from 8 to 9:30 p.m. CST.
Police and security personnel will swarm the campus as an as- yetunannounced number of guests pass through meticulous safety scans.
Campus will be closed to the public.
“Our faculty, staff and students have been working toward and looking forward to this moment for the past year,” said Belmont University President Bob Fisher. “There have been countless details – it’s got to be a thousand – that have had to be managed. We’ve been forced to rethink this event from top to bottom. But this community’s pulled together.”
Nashville’s coronavirus cases have risen recently after steady declines. But Metro Public Health Director Michael Caldwell said he is confident the event will be safe.
Proof of negat ive COVID-19 tests, temperature checks, surgical-grade masks, social distancing and health assessments are required of attendees.
Air in the enclosed 200- person media tent
outside the debate hall will be recycled at least a dozen times per hour.
Raised platforms on the campus lawn will host 48 television broadcasters.
“My staff and I have had several meetings and walk- throughs with our partners at Belmont,” Caldwell said. “We feel confident that the protocols in place leading up to, during, and after this historic event will ensure that participants will be safe.”
This is the second-ever presidential debate in Tennessee. The first was held during similarly challenging economic times in 2008 at Belmont University.
Then, Tom Brokaw directed questions and managed conversation between John McCain and Barack Obama, who were both senators at the time.
More than 2,500 media representatives were on site in 2008 — many more than will be allowed at this event.
“Next week, Belmont will once again shine a light on our great state putting the eyes of the world on Tennessee,” Gov. Bill Lee said in a recorded statement. Lee is in quarantine due to COVID-19 exposure. “I applaud their embrace of civic duty.”
The debate stage is surrounded by a red carpet, black curtains, and red-white-and-blue signs.
Pipes hang just over the podiums where Biden and Trump will stand to pump cool air on them and counteract the heat from the stage lights.
The U. S. Secret Service is working closely with Metro Nashville police and fire officials, emergency responders, highway patrol, and campus security.
“This has been a unified collaborative effort within the Nashville law enforcement public safety community,” said William Hudson, special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Nashville office. “We always develop our security plans to minimize any impact on the local community.”
Traffic closures will begin around the campus on Wednesday afternoon to provide for the candidates’ motorcades. The roads will be cleared by rush hour on Friday.
The broadcast will be aired in 40 countries and attract needed visitors to mostly- empty hotels and restaurants.
“We’re in a trying economic time and this debate will shine a very positive spotlight on our city,” said Butch Spyridon, CEO of the Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp. “We need that spotlight.
“I can only hope that FIFA is watching [ to encourage choosing Nashville as the 2026 World
Cup host city] and Saturday Night Live takes another shot at Nashville [with a skit parody as the show did after the 2008 debate in Nashville].”