Biden rejects Trump bid to delay debate
JOE Biden has rejected Donald Trump’s proposal to push back their remaining two debates in the wake of the president’s coronavirus diagnosis.
And the Democrat candidate says it is not up to President Trump to set the schedule for the high-profile clash.
Biden deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield says the campaign had long ago agreed to debate dates of September 29, October 15 and October 22.
Debate organisers yesterday said next week’s event would be a virtual one due to President Trump’s having Covid-19.
The Biden camp says President Trump’s “erratic behaviour does not allow him to rewrite the calendar and pick new dates of his choosing”.
Ms Bedingfield said Mr Biden is looking forward to the October 22 debate, which she says is “tied for the latest debate date in 40 years”.
The election is on November 3.
Earlier President Trump’s campaign proposed delaying the two remaining debates by one week to ensure the debates can take place in person, rather than virtually, after Mr Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis.
The Commission on Presidential Debate announced yesterday that next week’s town hall debate in Miami would be held virtually because of Mr Trump had the virus.
The president immediately objected to that format, and he said he would not take part.
Mr Trump’s campaign manager Bill Stepien said in a statement that the “American people should not be deprived of the chance to see the two candidates for president debate face to face two more times” before the election.
Mr Stepien said the campaign would like to see the town hall postponed by one week, to October 22, and the third debate held on October 29.
Democrat Joe Biden’s campaign had also asked that town hall be moved back a week “so the president is not able to evade accountability”.
The nonpartisan Commission on
Presidential Debates made the decision to shift to a virtual debate unilaterally, citing the need to “to protect the health and safety of all involved with the second presidential debate”.
But Mr Trump, who is recovering from Covid-19 at the White House after spending three days in the hospital, insisted he’s in “great shape” and called the idea of a debate other than face-to-face a “joke”.
“I’m not going to do a virtual debate,” he told Fox Business moments after the announcement.
With less than four weeks until election day and with millions of voters casting early ballots, pressure is building on Mr Trump to turn around a campaign that is trailing Mr Biden nationally and in most battlegrounds, where the margin is narrower.
Mr Stepien earlier said Mr Trump would stage a rally rather than debate next Thursday.