Immediately after the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) announced on Thursday morning that it would hold its next debate between candidates virtually, President Donald Trump decried the idea, saying he would refuse to be a part of the event if it moved to that format.
The second debate between Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, set to take place next week in Miami, was to be a town hall-style setup, with undecided voters asking questions of each of the candidates.
The CPD said its decision to change from an in-person debate to a virtual one was made in order “to protect the health and safety of all involved.” Under the rule change, both candidates would answer questions from separate locations instead of from the same debate hall.
The Biden campaign indicated it would accept the changes proposed by the nonpartisan CPD on how the candidates would debate.
“Vice President Biden looks forward to speaking directly to the American people and comparing his plan for bringing the country together and building back better with Donald Trump’s failed leadership on the coronavirus that has thrown the strong economy he inherited into the worst downturn since the Great Depression,” Biden campaign communications director Kate Bedingfield said in a statement.
But the president himself forcefully rejected the plan, telling Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo that the change was “not acceptable to us.”
“I’m not going to waste my time on a virtual debate, that’s not what debating is all about,” Trump said. “You sit behind a computer and do a debate. It’s ridiculous.”
Although extremely uncommon, a debate where both candidates discuss the issues from remote locations has happened in the past. When Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy debated each other in the third debate of the 1960 election campaign, they did it from Los Angeles and New York, respectively, with the moderator asking questions from Chicago.
The announced change in format to a virtual debate comes a week after Trump was diagnosed with COVID-19. Over the weekend, the president was airlifted by helicopter to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center as his condition worsened. Yet by Monday, Trump left the hospital and returned to the White House, against the advice of his aides, and began to downplay the threat of the disease, much like he has since the beginning of the crisis.
Trump is reportedly still being treated for coronavirus, taking the steroid medication dexamethasone, which doctors say can make patients feel better than they actually are. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the White House’s coronavirus task force, said earlier this week that while Trump may say he feels better at the moment, a “reversal” of Trump’s condition, where he could start “going in the wrong direction” in terms of recovery, is possible between now and next week.
With those possibilities in mind, experts have also warned that Trump would still likely be infectious by the time the next debate is scheduled to take place. That would mean he would put everyone in the debate hall at risk of contracting COVID-19, including Biden, the moderator and audience members, if the event were held in a studio.
People close to the president, including his eldest son Donald Trump Jr., immediately tried to spin the proposed changes to the next debate by suggesting they were happening in order to benefit Biden. Trump Jr. specifically implied that the change came about due to what he said happened at the vice presidential debate on Wednesday evening.
“Does anyone else find it awfully coincidental that the morning after [Vice President] Mike Pence destroys [Democratic vice presidential nominee] Kamala Harris in a debate that the ‘debate commission’ unilaterally changes the format to obviously benefit Basement Biden?” Trump Jr. opined in a tweet.
Trump Jr.’s notion that Pence won the debate is not shared by everyone, however. A snap poll conducted by CNN after that debate ended last night found that 59 percent of those who watched the debate felt Harris had won, with only 38 percent believing Pence had a better performance. Similarly, polls after the first debate between Biden and Trump found that the former had performed better as well.
Help us Prepare for Trump’s Day One
Trump is busy getting ready for Day One of his presidency – but so is Truthout.
Trump has made it no secret that he is planning a demolition-style attack on both specific communities and democracy as a whole, beginning on his first day in office. With over 25 executive orders and directives queued up for January 20, he’s promised to “launch the largest deportation program in American history,” roll back anti-discrimination protections for transgender students, and implement a “drill, drill, drill” approach to ramp up oil and gas extraction.
Organizations like Truthout are also being threatened by legislation like HR 9495, the “nonprofit killer bill” that would allow the Treasury Secretary to declare any nonprofit a “terrorist-supporting organization” and strip its tax-exempt status without due process. Progressive media like Truthout that has courageously focused on reporting on Israel’s genocide in Gaza are in the bill’s crosshairs.
As journalists, we have a responsibility to look at hard realities and communicate them to you. We hope that you, like us, can use this information to prepare for what’s to come.
And if you feel uncertain about what to do in the face of a second Trump administration, we invite you to be an indispensable part of Truthout’s preparations.
In addition to covering the widespread onslaught of draconian policy, we’re shoring up our resources for what might come next for progressive media: bad-faith lawsuits from far-right ghouls, legislation that seeks to strip us of our ability to receive tax-deductible donations, and further throttling of our reach on social media platforms owned by Trump’s sycophants.
We’re preparing right now for Trump’s Day One: building a brave coalition of movement media; reaching out to the activists, academics, and thinkers we trust to shine a light on the inner workings of authoritarianism; and planning to use journalism as a tool to equip movements to protect the people, lands, and principles most vulnerable to Trump’s destruction.
We urgently need your help to prepare. As you know, our December fundraiser is our most important of the year and will determine the scale of work we’ll be able to do in 2025. We’ve set two goals: to raise $115,000 in one-time donations and to add 1365 new monthly donors by midnight on December 31.
Today, we’re asking all of our readers to start a monthly donation or make a one-time donation – as a commitment to stand with us on day one of Trump’s presidency, and every day after that, as we produce journalism that combats authoritarianism, censorship, injustice, and misinformation. You’re an essential part of our future – please join the movement by making a tax-deductible donation today.
If you have the means to make a substantial gift, please dig deep during this critical time!
With gratitude and resolve,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy