Biden, Trump hold dueling town halls in lieu of debate
Trump, Biden wage rivalry long distance in dueling town halls
President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, having seen their planned second debate fail to materialize, hosted simultaneous town halls Thursday night on competing TV networks.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and challenger Joe Biden competed for TV audiences in dueling town halls on Thursday night instead of meeting face-to-face for their second debate as originally planned.
The two took questions at the same time in different cities on different networks: Trump on NBC from Miami, Biden on ABC from Philadelphia. Trump backed out of plans for the presidential face-off originally scheduled for the evening after debate organizers said it would be held virtually following Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis.
The town halls offered a different format for the candidates to present themselves to voters, after the two held a chaotic and combative first debate late last month. But Trump, speaking Thursday morning on Fox Business, indicated he had no plans to change his tone going forward.
Trump said of the first debate that “some people said I was rude, but you have to be rude. The guy’s a liar.”
In case anyone remains unaware of Trump’s tactics, Biden warned supporters at a virtual fundraiser that the president would go after him aggressively in the final weeks of the campaign.
“We’ve got 19 days left and you know he’s going to throw everything but the kitchen sink at me,” Biden said Thursday. “And it’s going to be an overwhelming torrent of lies and distortions.”
During a rally Thursday, Trump went hard after Biden, repeating his campaign message that “Joe Biden is a corrupt politician.”
Trump also preemptively attacked NBC before the town hall, declaring that at a previous event the network hosted “they asked him questions that a child could answer.” He joked that he wished he could watch Biden’s appearance Thursday night because “I wanna see if he can made it through the program.”
As the pace of the campaign speeds up in its final weeks, the two candidates were first taking care of other electoral necessities Thursday: As Trump appeared in the battleground state of North Carolina, and Biden raised campaign cash at his virtual event.
Trump spent much of the rally downplaying the severity of the virus that’s killed more than 217,000 Americans, after largely recovering himself.
“It’s going to peter out. It’s going to end,” he said of the pandemic — just as he had repeatedly declared last winter — even as cases have spiked nationwide in recent weeks.
And he mentioned that his own son, Barron, “recovered so fast” from the virus to bolster his argument for why schools can and should fully reopen.
“We’ve learned about this disease. You’ve got to open up your businesses, open up your schools, get it going,” he said.
Trump also took his most overt swipe yet at Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, with whom Trump has publicly disagreed on the coronavirus. He said Fauci is a nice guy, “so I keep him around.” But he also described Fauci, who has served in administrations of both parties, as a Democrat.
“Everybody knows that. He’s Cuomo’s friend,” Trump said, a reference to Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, with whom the president has feuded over his administration’s response to the pandemic.
The president’s appearance in North Carolina underscored the challenge confronting him in the final weeks of the election as multiple polls have shown Trump trailing Biden nationally and in many swing states. Trump has spent much of the week on defense, campaigning in states he won in 2016, like North Carolina and Iowa, where he campaigned Wednesday.
But despite the polling, Trump predicted a “big, beautiful red wave” on Election Night, before referencing another one of his major challenges: A cash disadvantage to the Biden campaign, which just announced raising a record-breaking $383 million in September.
“I don’t want to say it too loud, because they’ve got all this money, they’ll spend money like crazy,” Trump said, after predicting a GOP wave.
Despite protests from Hollywood stars, NBC stood fast to its decision to hold the town hall with Trump at the same time as Biden’s on ABC.
Amy Schumer, Ben Stiller, Debra Messing, Seth Rogen, Jon Cryer, Jon Hamm, Sarah Silverman and Sterling K. Brown were among the actors beseeching NBC to change the scheduling through a letter sent to network leadership on Thursday.
Cesar Conde, chairman of the NBC Universal News Group, said the network shared the frustration of critics, but added the decision was based on fairness.
“We aired a town hall with Vice President Biden on Oct. 5 at 8 p.m.,” Conde said. “If we were to move our town hall with President Trump to a later time slot we would be violating our commitment to offer both campaigns access to the same audience and the same forum.”
NBC said it asked ABC to change the time of its Biden telecast, but was turned away. ABC scheduled its event last week; NBC announced its town hall Wednesday.