Trump won’t go virtual; Biden rules out new date
WASHINGTON — Further presidential debates this fall were uncertain Thursday after President Donald Trump rejected a virtual format next week to protect people from his COVID-19 illness and former Vice President Joe Biden refused to postpone the third debate until days before the election.
With the election less than a month away, the impasse could cost Trump a critical last chance to close the gap with Biden, who surged in polls after the president’s vitriolic performance in their first debate last week.
But the president’s doctor, Sean Conley, gave him a boost Thursday afternoon, saying Trump could return safely “to public engagements” Saturday, 10 days after he first tested positive for the coronavirus.
In a statement, Conley said Trump’s condition “has remained stable and devoid of any indications to suggest progression of illness.”
The next debate was scheduled for next Thurs
day, but Trump was hospitalized for three nights for COVID-19 last weekend. The president has refused to isolate himself since returning to the White House, and his campaign said he would hold a rally rather than participate in a debate where he and Biden were in different locations.
Trump’s resistance is an extension of his months-long disdain for coronavirus safety precautions, and the virus now has infected multiple officials in the White House and in his campaign.
The dispute over the two remaining presidential debates erupted Thursday morning when the nonprofit Commission on Presidential Debates announced that next Thursday’s event would require the two candidates to speak remotely “in order to protect the health and safety of all involved.”
The moderator, C-SPAN’S Steve Scully, would host the town hallstyle debate from Miami as voters posed questions to Trump and Biden, who would appear on screen from different locations, the commission said.
Trump swiftly rejected the plan.
“I’m not going to waste my time on a virtual debate. That’s not what debating is all about,” he told Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business. “You sit behind a computer and do a debate. It’s ridiculous.”
Trump’s allies revived baseless suggestions that Biden wanted to use a teleprompter or get assistance from advisers, and Trump’s aides said the president would hold a rally that night instead.
“We’ll pass on this sad excuse to bail out Joe Biden and do a rally instead,” said Bill Stepien, Trump’s campaign manager, who has tested positive for the coronavirus himself and is working remotely.
Stepien offered to postpone the town hall to Oct. 22 — when Trump presumably would not be contagious — as long as the third debate would be pushed back to Oct. 29, five days before Election Day.
Biden refused, saying he would participate Oct. 22 but not after that.
“We set the dates. I’m sticking with the dates,” he told reporters while campaigning in Arizona. “I’m showing up. I’ll be there. In fact, if he shows up, fine. If he doesn’t show up, fine.”
With next Thursday’s debate apparently scrubbed, Biden agreed to participate solo in a town hall event that night hosted by ABC News.
Trump’s campaign is eager to make up for his first debate with Biden, on Sept. 29 in Cleveland. Public opinion surveys showed voters were repelled by Trump’s bullying demeanor as he repeatedly mocked and interrupted the former vice president.
Ed Rollins, a veteran Republican strategist who leads a super PAC that backs Trump’s re-election, said the president was better off hitting the campaign trail and focusing on a handful of battleground states that will determine the election, rather than a national audience.
“He’s got five or six states that are critical to him,” Rollins said. “He’d be much better off to barnstorm those states and try to move smaller numbers of votes.”
Besides, Rollins added, Trump is unlikely to modify the behavior that so many voters found unpleasant in the last debate.
“It’s not his style to change,” he said. “He’s not going to go out and become soft and fuzzy.”
Although Trump returned to the Oval Office on Thursday for a second day, details about his health are spotty. The White House refused again to say when Trump last tested negative for the coronavirus, and a spokeswoman, Alyssa Farah, said his test results were “his private medical history.”
Trump announced early last Friday that he had tested positive for the coronavirus and was airlifted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., that night for treatment for COVID-19.
After Trump’s announcement, Biden was tested repeatedly to ensure he had not contracted the coronavirus while on stage with the president earlier that week. He tested negative each time, including Thursday, the campaign said.